Technology adoption and company performance: Correlation analysis with the evidence of Korean export companies’ case

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide useful implications for Korean export companies to adopt the smart technology to improve their performance in the era of industrial convergence with the interdisciplinary study between trade and technology management.

Design/methodology/approach

This study followed the five-stage procedure and methods. In the first stage, measurement items were developed in four performance factors: leaning and growth, internal process, customer and finance. In the second stage, data were collected by conducting two types of surveys: first, for Korean export companies that have adopted Radio frequency identification (RFID) to test the proposed model and analyze the performance and second, for RFID experts of industry-university R&D cooperation to measure the relative importance of factors and items. In the third stage, the model was verified with structural equation modeling. In the fourth stage, AHP was used to analyze the relative importance of factors and items. In the fifth stage, post-RFID adoption performance in Korean export companies was measured by a formula for the performance index. Through these five-stage procedure and methods, the final performance improvement strategies and practical implications are presented in the conclusion.

Findings

The framework finds that the total score of RFID post-adoption on company performance proved relatively low, which indicates that the effect of this technology on export companies’ performance is still unsatisfactory. And financial performance proved to be ‘top priority’ area, which requires the most urgent effort for improvement since its importance was higher than learning and growth, internal process and customer performance—but nonetheless its performance index was the lowest. This study finds that strategic decision making is required for adopting smart technology in the perspective of technology convergence to improve the performance of companies among heterogeneous industries.

Research limitations/implications

Despite the significant results of this study alone, it also has limitations. Therefore, the direction of the future study is as follows: future research should focus on finding specific impact factors enhancing post-adoption of smart technologies including RFID performance by conducting empirical studies that identify the factors affecting post adoption of smart technologies rate directly or indirectly.

Originality/value

In the current global market environment, not only technological convergence in the same kind of industry but also industrial convergence in the different kinds of industries are essential to manufacturing and service companies including to export companies with perspective of Innovation. This study has the value as an interdisciplinary study to actually measure the performance of a company by industrial convergence through the theme of adoption of smart technology in export companies.

Citation

Sawng, Y.-W., Park, Y., Jo, S.-H. and Park, S.-L. (2018), "Technology adoption and company performance: Correlation analysis with the evidence of Korean export companies’ case", Journal of Korea Trade, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 143-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKT-01-2018-0005