Abstract
Despite the growing demand for corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) engagement in response to the global complex crisis, the impacts of ESG activities and market environment ...on firm performance have not been sufficiently investigated. This study aims to explore how ESG activities affect firm performance and how the competitive market environment moderates this relationship. The panel data regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between the ESG performance and firm performance (specifically, market capitalization as a measure of market‐based firm performance and profit margin and return on assets as measures of account‐based firm performance) with the data of 2115 listed companies from 53 countries over the past 5 years (2017–2021). The analysis results showed a U‐shaped relation between ESG performance and market capitalization, and a positive linear relationship was observed between ESG performance and profit margin or return on assets. Importantly, it was found that these relationships are negatively moderated by the competition (number of competitors) in the market. It can be interpreted that the greater the number of competitors in the market, the weaker the effect of ESG performance on firm performance. This study discusses plausible reasons for these observations and managerial and policy implications drawn from the results. This study not only analyzes the relationship between ESG performance and various aspects of firm performance at the global level, but also accumulates new evidence for the moderating effect of market competition.
At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has been ongoing for more than a year, young people have been the subject of vigilant scrutiny and criticism regarding their active engagement in social ...activities. We posed the question of whether young people's response to COVID-19 was different from that of other generations and analyzed awareness and behavior to investigate this question. Specifically, we examined internet searches for information on COVID-19 and credit card consumption in South Korea among young people in their 20s and compared them to a reference group of people in their 50s. Our research has confirmed that there was no statistically significant difference between young people and the reference group in this regard. Furthermore, in the 25 sub-sectors of industry we examined, young people's consumption activities recovered significantly faster than the reference group in only three sub-sectors. This study demonstrated that young people showed stronger interest than the reference group in their response to COVID-19, and that they cooperated with the government's social distancing policy by reducing their activities. Through this study, we presented a scientific approach for evaluating young people in regard to their response to COVID-19, offering useful implications for designing appropriate policies for public health.
A novel red-emitting Na2Y2Ti3O10:Eu3+,Sm3+ phosphor was synthesized for the first time, and its photoluminescence (PL) properties were investigated for application to white-light-emitting diodes ...(W-LEDs). The Na2Y1Eu1Ti3O10 phosphor showed a 3-fold higher PL intensity compared to that of a commercial red-emitting Y2O2S:Eu3+ phosphor under 396 nm irradiation. Sm3+ ions were introduced as a sensitizer, and they increased the PL intensity by up to 35% under 410 nm irradiation. The effects of introducing the sensitizer were investigated by measuring the quantum efficiencies and the time-resolved PL decay curves. The Na2Y1Eu1Ti3O10 phosphor exhibited remarkable resistance to thermal quenching, and a W-LED comprising the phosphor showed bright white emission with a color rendering index (R a) of 83, a color temperature of 5556 K, and Commission Internationale de I’Eclairage (CIE) color coordinates of (0.3306, 0.3754).
Although there has been a lot of research on the effect of workforce diversity on innovation performance, the studies on research and development (R&D) team diversity have been scarce. Moreover, even ...the previous studies considered R&D performances at the firm level, which left the relationship between inputs and outputs unclear. This study aimed to investigate the relationship more precisely by examining the effect of R&D team diversity at the project level. The gender, major, and education diversities were considered and the project‐level performances were measured by four indicators: papers, patents, R&D success, and innovative sales. After analyzing 1166 R&D projects implemented by South Korean small and medium‐sized enterprises supported by government subsidies, we found inverted U‐shaped relationships between gender and major diversities and patent applications. That is, patents increased from low to moderate level of diversities (0.52 for gender diversity and 0.43 for major diversity in normalized Blau's index). However, when the diversities exceeded the moderate levels, patents decreased. Our findings provide strong empirical evidence that the ambivalence of diversity influences simultaneously and that the influences dominate differently depending on the degree of diversity. Education diversity had a linear positive correlation with paper publications and R&D success. Based on these findings, we discussed managerial implications from the perspective of R&D project managers and the funding agency.
The recent innovation activities of global top-tier pharmaceutical companies in accordance with global and regional health concerns were investigated in order to identify their innovations ...contributing to population health.
"Innovation activity" was defined as the number of drugs for which R&D activities have been reported within the last three years. Such activities were measured by collecting the data on drug developments and classifying them by developer company, phase of development, therapeutic use, and the country in which the development conducted. Subsequently, we examined and compared the correlations between the global innovation activities of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and the disease burden measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by income level and region. In addition, this study analyzed the association between country-specific innovations and DALYs in the corresponding countries.
At a global level, the innovation activities were not associated with global DALYs. However, when analyzed by income level, the innovation activities were associated with DALYs in high income and upper middle income countries while it was not associated with DALYs in low middle income and low income countries. In terms of region, correlations were found between the innovation activities and DALYs in the European region, the Americas, and the Western Pacific region whereas such correlations were not found in the African, Eastern Mediterranean, and South-East Asian regions. Similar to the analyses by income level and region, correlations between country-specific innovations and DALYs were only found in high income or high GDP countries. In addition, an empirical analysis of several cases including Canada, Germany, South Korea, and the United Kingdom revealed that pharmaceutical innovation is more closely related to market size than disease burden.
This study identified that discrepancies between pharmaceutical innovation and public health needs, i.e., disease burden values, have persisted until recently. To alleviate this imbalance, both public and private sectors should not only fulfill their respective roles and responsibilities regarding these issues, but also make strategic and collaborative efforts such as Product Development Partnerships (PDPs) directed toward public health improvement.
In this paper, we analyzed how the CAFE standard has affected improvements in the fuel economy of vehicles, as examined in other preceding studies, but in addition, we also analyzed how these ...standards have affected the level of consumer interest in fuel economy. Our goal was to determine what effects the government intervention has had on consumers, and whether such intervention ought to be continued. The results showed that not only has the CAFE standard had a direct and significant impact on improving fuel economy and increasing the market share of fuel-efficient vehicles, it has also boosted the development of technologies for enhancing fuel economy and raised consumer interest in fuel economy, thus indirectly contributing to overcoming market failure. The significance of this study is that we used publically available observed data and analyzed the recent impact of the CAFE standard specifically with a focus on the behavior and strategies exhibited by consumers and automakers. Another significance of this study is that it extends our purview to examine the effects that the CAFE standard has had in other countries (Korea).
•CAFE standards have raised consumer interest in fuel economy such as MPG.•CAFE standards had a significant impact on increasing fuel-efficient vehicles•Sales of HEVs are more significantly affected by CAFE standards than by WTI.•CAFE standards had a significant impact on a foreign vehicle market.•Analysis suggests the standards will continue to be necessary for market growth.
Research objective of our study is to find the effect of technology and market dynamism on the business performances by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) supporting services. Technology and ...market dynamism have been introduced as moderating variables, utilisation degree of information provided by SME supporting services was selected as an independent variable and contribution degree to SME business performances such as revenue, export, employment and so on were selected as dependent variables. Structural equation modeling was established to analyse moderating and mediating effects on SME business performances by SME supporting services using Smart PLS programme. The SME supporting services had a direct effect on SME business performances and also indirectly influenced SME business performances via contribution degree to decision-making of SME executives. Technology and market dynamism significantly moderated the effect of decision-making of SME executives on SME business performances. It could be seen that technology and market dynamism had a mediated-moderating effect on SME business performances.
Academic research suggests a number of technology evaluation models. To ensure effective use, models need to be improved in accordance with changing internal and external environments. However, a ...majority of previous studies focus on model development, while a few emphasize their implementation or improvement. To fill this research gap, this study suggests a systematic approach to examining the validity of technology evaluation models and improving them. We consider three propositions as criteria for improvement: 1) the coherence of the evaluation results with the evaluation purpose, 2) the appropriateness of the evaluation methods, and 3) the concreteness of the evaluation model. Rather than using expert opinions, this study takes a data-driven approach, wherein we analyze actual evaluation results and determine whether the model produces the intended results. A case study of 291 technology evaluation results, all made by the South Korean government in support of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, is conducted to verify the suggested approach's applicability. This is one of the few studies to address issues regarding improvements to a technology evaluation model. Its approach can help to develop and continuously improve a valid technology evaluation model, thus leading to more effective practice.
•This study suggested an approach to examine technology evaluation models.•The validity concept was introduced to develop criteria for the examination.•A data-driven approach was applied to suggest a way to improve the models in use.•The case study used 291 technology evaluation results in Korea.•The results will help technology evaluators to develop a valid model and use it effectively.
To find ways to make the government’s cooperative research and development (R&D) support policy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) more effective, we analyzed the characteristics of SMEs that ...prefer such support. Through decision tree and discriminant analysis of 3300 Korean SMEs, we derived rules to distinguish between groups that prefer cooperative R&D support and those that do not. Based on the results, the important influencing factors were found to be the time required for R&D planning, prior experience in cooperation, the availability of equipment, the ratio of self-procured R&D funding, the attempts at R&D and the firm’s level of performance. The results suggested that if the policy objective is to encourage more active involvement of SMEs in cooperative R&D support programs, it is desirable to attract SMEs with less cooperative experience and not to give too much weight to past achievements when selecting beneficiaries. Furthermore, we believe that policies offering supports in the R&D planning stage and the joint utilization of equipment could be solutions to reduce the practical difficulties experienced by SMEs related to cooperative R&D.
In this study, we aimed to assess health research funding allocation in South Korea by analysing the relationship between government funding and disease burden in South Korea, specifically focusing ...on cancers.
The relationship between research funding and the cancer burden, measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), was analysed using a linear regression method over a 10-year interval. Funding information on 25 types of cancer was obtained from the National Science and Technology Information Service portal in South Korea. Measures of cancer burden were obtained from Global Burden of Disease studies. The funding predictions were derived from regression analysis and compared with actual funding allocations. In addition, we evaluated how the funding distribution reflected long-term changes in the burden and the burden specific to South Korea compared with global values.
Korean funding in four periods, 2005-2007, 2008-2010, 2011-2013 and 2015-2017, were associated with the cancer burden in 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2013, respectively. For DALYs, the correlation coefficients were 0.79 and 0.82 in 2003 and 2013, respectively, which were higher than the values from other countries. However, the changes in DALYs (1990-2006) were not associated with the funding changes (from 2005 to 2007 to 2015-2017). In addition, the value differences between Korean and global DALYs were not associated with Korean government research funding.
Although research funding was associated with the cancer burden in South Korea during the last decade, the distribution of research funds did not appropriately reflect the changes in burden nor the differences between the South Korean and global burden levels. The policy-makers involved in health research budgeting should consider not only the absolute burden values for singular years but also the long-term changes in burden and the country-specific burden when they prioritise public research projects.
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