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This study surveys prior studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Korean firms that have been conducted between 2000 and the present. It introduces how Korean researchers define CSR conceptually and develop CSR-related theories. We then discuss how CSR affects Korean firms and stakeholders by comprehensively reviewing prior studies. To this end, we collect and categorize CSR-related papers by subtopics, such as CSR concept, firm value, cost of capital, risk, compensation and ownership structure, and review the research results by topic. We then also review studies on responsible investment (RI). Lastly, we suggest topics and directions for future research.

This paper investigates how dividend policies affect a firm value according to complex interactions of different market imperfections or firm characteristics. We consider the level of information asymmetry, agency problems, corporate governance, a firm’s stage in its life cycle, transaction costs, and irrationality of investors to show how firm value and dividend policies are related with respect to these factors. We find that dividend payout increases firm value in general and much more when the agency problem is severe. However, we find that dividend payout becomes irrelevant to firm value under specific situations; with high level of information asymmetry, with strong corporate governance, or in early stage of its life cycle. The results provide an answer to the question of why some extant empirical studies argue that dividend is relevant and others not.

This paper proposes how to design and implement data-driven strategies by investigating how a firm can increase its value using data science. Drawing on prior studies on architectural innovation, a behavioral theory of the firm, and the knowledge-based view of the firm as well as the analysis of field observations, the paper shows how data science is abused in dealing with meso-level data while it is underused in using macro-level and alternative data to accomplish machine-human teaming and risk management. The implications help us understand why some firms are better at drawing value from intangibles such as data, data-science capabilities, and routines and how to evaluate such capabilities.

This paper examines whether managers affect firm performance in an emerging market. Using information on managers in publicly traded firms in Korea, we find that managers with better academic credentials improve Tobin’s Q. The impact of manager ability is more evident when management decision making becomes more critical. Manager ability becomes more important as government interventions become weaker after the economic crisis. Management effects are stronger in firms with higher growth opportunities, higher risks, or under financial distress. Stand-alone firms and firms with better corporate governance scores show stronger impacts of managers on firm value. A positive impact of manager ability on firm performance is robust when endogeneity issues are controlled. These findings still hold regardless of choices of managers; executive directors, outside directors, and CEOs. Taken together, these results suggest that managerial ability matters more to firms when the firms face challenges and managers have more decision scope and power.

This study examines how capital intensity and growth opportunities influence the relationship between dividend payouts and firm value. Although previous research has extensively explored dividend policy and firm value, little attention has been given to how firm-specific traits, particularly capital intensity, affect the value implications of dividend payouts. Using signaling theory and agency theory, this study proposes that dividends may serve as stronger signals of financial stability and managerial discipline in firms with higher capital intensity and more growth opportunities. By analyzing a sample of 7,822 firm–year observations of Korean listed firms from 2014 to 2023, we empirically test whether capital intensity moderates the link between dividend payout ratios and firm value. Firm value is assessed using Tobin’s Q and the price-to-book ratio. The findings indicate that dividend payouts are positively related to firm value, and this relationship intensifies for firms with higher capital intensity and greater growth prospects. These results suggest that tangible assets in capital-intensive firms enhance dividend signals’credibility and lower financing frictions, thus boosting investor confidence. This research adds to the literature by emphasizing the moderating role of capital intensity in the dividend–firm value relationship and providing new evidence from Korean listed firms.

본 연구의 목적은 기업의 사회적 성과가 기업 가치에 주는 정(+)의 영향을 확인하고, 이 관계에서 경영환경의 조절효과에 대해 탐구하는 것이다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 자원기반관점과 이해관계자관점에 기반하여 세 가지 차원의 경영환경 - 국가(제도환경), 산업(산업특성), 그리고 기업(국제시장 노출도) - 이 기업의 사회적 성과와 기업 가치 간의 관계에 어떤 영향을 줄 수 있는 지를 살펴보았다. 전세계 1,100여 개 기업 데이터를 분석한 결과, 본 연구에서는 기업의 사회적 성과가 기업 가치에 끼치는 긍정적인 효과를 확인하였다. 또한, 해당 관계에서 기업이 환경오염산 업에 속해 있는지 여부와 국제시장 노출도가 가지는 정(+)의 조절효과를 실증분석을 통해 밝혀내었다. 높은 제도환경의 긍정적인 조절효과에 대한 가설은 지지되지 않았지만, 통계분석 결과 부 (-)의 유의미한 조절효과가 나타났다. 본 연구는 기업의 사회적 책임이 갖는 전략적 효용성뿐 아니라, 그것이 기업이 처한 내외부적 환경과의 상호작용을 통해 더 나은 결과를 가져올 수 있음을 시사한다. 또한, 제도환경 변수를 구성할 때 포트폴리오 기법을 사용함으로써 다국적기업에 대한 연구에 있어서 국가 수준 변수의 영향을 측정할 때 보다 다양한 요소들을 고려해야 할 필요성을 제시한다.

Corporate social performance (CSP) has become a popular subject of discussion in the business literature. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the relationship between CSP and corporate financial performance (CFP), shedding limited light on contingent factors in business environment that may shape the impact of CSP. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of CSP on firm value along with moderating roles of business environment. Building upon the resource-based view (RBV) and stakeholder perspective, this paper examines how the three layers of business environment - country (institutional environment), industry (industry characteristic) and firm (international market exposure) affect the relationship between CSP and firm value. Drawing on the data of roughly 1,100 firms from around the world we confirm the positive influence of CSP on firm value, along with the positive moderating effects of industry characteristic and international market exposure. The empirical results of this paper provide evidence that firms operating in a ‘dirty’ industry, or more exposed to international markets may enjoy higher returns from their CSP. This study may contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence to support the arguments of existing studies that regard CSP as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Furthermore, the results of this study reveal that CSP leads to better outcomes when it interacts with the contingent factors in the business environment. By using the portfolio method to construct the institutional environment variable, we also highlight the importance of considering several aspects when examining country-level effects on MNEs.

In this paper, we use an event study approach and find that aggressive marketing activities of target firms prior to the M&A deal are not always compensated with greater premiums and favorable market reactions, which would represent the presence of a potential “window-dressing.” Further analysis shows that the positive association between marketing activities and deal performance is conditional on the change in institutional ownership prior to the deal, suggesting that institutional investors cherry-pick good targets with value-enhancing marketing activities. The results hold for both OLS and 2SLS after accounting for potential endogeneity. This paper contributes to the marketing-finance interface literature by providing more precise and direct evidence on how marketing strategies affect firm value.

In this paper we examine the relation between corporate governance and stock market liquidity around the world where different legal institutions are present. We conjecture that better internal corporate governance is more useful and effective in reducing information asymmetry and thereby increasing stock market liquidity in countries with inferior legal and regulatory environments for shareholder right protection. Consistent with this prediction, we find that liquidity tends to be higher for firms with better internal corporate governance in countries with poor legal and regulatory environments for shareholder right protection (e.g., German civil law countries). In contrast, we find that the relation between internal governance and stock liquidity is not statistically significant in countries with relatively strong shareholder protection laws.

Using U.S. data over the period 1971-2005, we identify a J-shaped relation between firm value and the amount of dividends. Top-dividend-payers tend to be valued higher than all other firms including non-dividend-payers, while non-dividend-payers tend to be valued higher than lowdividend- payers. This finding is robust to controlling for the potential self-selection bias in the value-dividend relation. Overall, the empirical value-dividend relation does not conform to the predictions of the simple tax or free cash flow hypothesis but to the prediction of the prodividend clientele hypothesis. Our evidence suggests that the demands of pro-dividend clienteles are concentrated in top-dividend-payers and that the high firm values of top-dividendpayers reflect such demands.

Yes, but only for those firms that are highly likely to pay dividends. Using U.S. data over the period 1970-2005, I investigate the value effect of dividends. To control for the potential selfselection bias, I examine the relation between firm value and dividends among firms with similar likelihoods of paying dividends. I find that the value of dividend-paying firms is not consistently higher or lower than the value of non-dividend-paying firms. In general, firm value does not increase or decrease with the amount of dividends for the majority of firms. However, there is evidence that high dividends increase firm value among firms for which dividend payouts are highly likely. Overall, I find little empirical support for the simple tax and free cash flow hypotheses. My evidence indicates the presence of a dividend clientele that favors high dividends. More importantly, it appears that this dividend clientele factor in not just high dividends but also key firm characteristics—such as stability of cash flows, maturity, profitability, and firm size—into investment decisions.

On 19 February 2020, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported that at least 11 cases of COVID-19 belonged in the same, initial cluster as Shincheonji Daegu church, with confirmed cases then standing at 31. This was the earliest news coverage of the COVID-19 “super-spreader” Daegu/ Gyeongsangbuk since the outbreak had begun in South Korea. In this paper, I concentrate on the relationship between the occurrence of a “super-spreader” and a negative stock market reaction during the earliest phase of the COVID-19 outbreak. Using location data of public firms’ headquarters, I find that local firms are more negatively affected by the announcement of this exogenous shock than others. However, local firms’ accounting performance and long-term stock market performance are insignificant, or even positive. Overall, this study sheds light on understanding the relationship between changes of local public health risk and stock market reaction.

The 2020 Coronavirus pandemic is exerting an enormous shock on the Korean economy. Using data on the location of a firm’s headquarters and main bank branch, I find that the value of firms located in Daegu is being affected negatively since the announcement of a mass infection at the Shincheonji Daegu church. In particular, using proptech, I show that the distance between the infection’s epicenter and a firm’s headquarters affects the stock market reaction negatively. Furthermore, I find that the exogenous shock the Coronavirus crisis is causing has stronger negative effects on firms with high information asymmetry and those not Chaebol-affiliated. This study sheds light on our understanding of the economic effects of a city’s paralysis using a unique world event. My results suggest also the potential risk of clustered headquarters and factories attributable to unpredictable community quarantines.

IT industry has become patent-intensive due to the rapid advances in technology and the fierce competition among firms. While prior studies indicate financial returns from investments in IT patents are unclear, recent patent wars in IT industry suggest that IT patents may be of great value. We examine the impact of IT patents as an intangible IT resource on firm value in IT industry, while also considering the moderating effect of firms’ innovation orientation (exploitative vs. explorative). Moreover, we examine how environmental uncertainty influences the relationship between firms’ IT patents, innovation orientation, and performance. Our results suggest that the impact of IT patents on firm value is positive and significant. More importantly, we find that this impact varies depending on firms’ innovation orientation. Further, we find that the moderating effect of innovation orientation is influenced significantly by the two dimensions of environmental uncertainty (i.e., competitiveness and dynamism).

Intellectual property portfolios are managed as a major investment method in firms as it provides strategic leverage on value creation to the firm. These potentially inimitable resources make Intellectual property management (IPM) issues strategically more attentive to firms in inspecting their portfolios for a better return on investment in technology and R&D. Taking market oriented view to these issues we investigate the firm value creation of IPM concentrating on cross licensing and patent exertion at occurrence of patent infringement lawsuit. We use event study methodology to assess the effects of the cross licensing and patent infringement on the stock market returns around the date of announcement. Results largely support our proposed hypotheses and shed new light on the factors associated with firm value creation of strategic intellectual property management. Our results provide the evidence that announcement of cross licensing make large effect on mutual parties engaged in a contract while the patent infringement announcements association with firm value shows insignificant statistical result demanding further investigation. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.

This paper examines whether high information asymmetry problems lower positive impacts of board independence on firm value. Independent directors are outside directors who have no ties with the firm at either a professional or personal level. We adopt various proxies for information transaction costs from market microstructure literature and volatile corporate situations such as growth opportunities, risks, credit rating, or financial distress. Using data on publicly listed firms and their directors from 1999 to 2006 in Korea, we find that independent directors are correlated with higher corporate value when the firm faces lower information asymmetry. These results suggest that the monitoring role of independent directors is limited when transferring firm-specific information is costly.

Firms can issue stocks classified in many ways, including in terms of voting rights, dividend rights, redemption rights, and conversion rights. This study investigates the desirability of giving firms greater freedom to choose their share classes. Making use of the setting created by the 2011 Commercial Act amendment that significantly relaxed regulation over share classes in Korea, we study the motivation behind and the effect of adopting two newly emergent classes: preferred stocks convertible to voting stocks at the discretion of management and preferred stocks redeemable at the discretion of investors. We find that firms adopt the former for managerial entrenchment purposes and destroy firm value, while firms adopt the latter in times of financial constraint but fail to arrest the decline in firm value.

Firms can issue stocks classified in many ways, including in terms of voting rights, dividend rights, redemption rights, and conversion rights. This study investigates the desirability of giving firms greater freedom to choose their share classes. Using the 2011 Commercial Act amendment that significantly relaxed regulation over share classes in Korea, we study the motivation behind and effect of adopting two newly emergent classes: preferred stocks convertible to voting stocks at the discretion of management and preferred stocks redeemable at the discretion of investors. We find that firms adopt the former for managerial entrenchment purposes and destroy firm value by doing so, while firms adopt the latter in times of financial distress but fail to arrest the decline in firm value by doing so.

This study investigates the impact of cash holdings on firm value of listed in the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE). And then this study explores the relationship and moderating the effect of the discretionary accruals between cash holdings and firm value. This study extract the sample from manufacturing firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE) and employs pooled-OLS and fixed effects estimation to test hypotheses. This study finds that cash holdings positively affect firm value, while discretionary accruals moderates firm value as playing a moderating factor between cash holdings and firm value.

This study investigates the impact of cash holdings on firm value of listed in the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE). And then this study explores the relationship and moderating the effect of the discretionary accruals between cash holdings and firm value. This study extract the sample from manufacturing firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE) and employs pooled-OLS and fixed effects estimation to test hypotheses. This study finds that cash holdings positively affect firm value, while discretionary accruals moderates firm value as playing a moderating factor between cash holdings and firm value.

본 연구는 2000년부터 2012년까지 미국증시에 상장된 55개 카지노 기업의 531개의 연도별 관측치를 샘플로 하여 기업가치에 대한 현금보유의 효과가 대조를 이루는 현금보유정책에 따라 차이가 있는지를 비교분석하였다. 분석을 위해 현금비율을 삼분위로 나누어 연구샘플을 세 그룹으로 분류하였으며 각 샘플기업의 시장가치는 토빈의 Q값으로 측정하였다. 토빈의 Q값이 세 그룹 간에 차이가 있는지를 검증하기 위해 일원분산분석과 사후검증인 Scheffe분석을 실시하였다. 분석결과, 상위 삼분위 그룹의 평균 토빈의 Q값은 중간 삼분위 그룹과 하위 삼분위 그룹보다 크게 나타났지만, 중간 삼분위 그룹과 하위 삼분위 그룹 사이에는 평균 토빈의 Q값에 유의한 차이가 없는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 산업 평균값보다 높은 현금비율을 유지하는 카지노 기업들이 시장으로부터 상대적으로 가치를 높게 평가 받고 있다는 것을 의미한다. 본 연구의 실증결과를 비추어 볼 때 현재 카지노 기업의 현금보유정책과 의사결정은 목표 현금보유량에 기초한 절충이론으로 설명되어진다 할 수 있다.