Soo Yeon Park and Hyun-Young Park
Based on 1,798 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2013, using publicly available disclosure data for Korean listed firms, this study aims to examine whether statutory internal…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on 1,798 firm-year observations from 2009 to 2013, using publicly available disclosure data for Korean listed firms, this study aims to examine whether statutory internal auditors influence firm-level stock price crash risk.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the bad news hoarding theory of crash risk, the authors investigate the association between the quality of statutory internal auditors and one-year-ahead stock price crash risk. The quality of statutory internal auditors is measured as the compensation of statutory internal auditors and the financial expertise of statutory internal auditors. Stock price crash risk is measured as an indicator variable whether a firm experiences one or more crash weeks during the fiscal year period.
Findings
The authors find that higher quality of statutory internal auditors – measured through greater compensation and greater financial expertise – is associated with lower possibilities of future stock price crash risk. These results indicate that high-quality statutory internal auditors mitigate bad news hoarding of managers because of their greater capability and stronger incentive to lower litigation risk and preserve their reputation. The results are mostly robust to different measures for stock price crash risk and the quality of statutory internal auditors.
Practical implications
The findings of this study regarding stock price crash risk are important for investors because such risk can significantly affect investor welfare. The results indicate that statutory internal auditors play an important role in controlling future stock price crash risk and maintaining stability in the equity market.
Originality/value
This study adds to the extant literature on the determinants of stock price crash risk and is the first to examine the impact of internal auditors on stock price crash risk. Moreover, this study also contributes to the existing literature on internal auditor quality by showing that high-quality statutory internal auditors reduce risks in financial markets.
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This study conceptualizes participatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a consumer empowerment strategy and examines the effect of participatory CSR on consumer responses…
Abstract
Purpose
This study conceptualizes participatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a consumer empowerment strategy and examines the effect of participatory CSR on consumer responses in a social media setting.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a 2 (type of CSR campaign) × 4 (tone of consumer comments) between-subjects experimental design. The sample comprises college students and nonstudent participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Findings
Data indicate that the participatory CSR program leads to higher levels of perceived self-efficacy and social worth, which subsequently results in stronger intentions to spread positive word of mouth about the company’s CSR efforts. The findings suggest that participatory CSR has the power to boost a company’s reputation as an “admired” company through consumer empowerment.
Originality/value
This study advances the scholarship of CSR by explicating participatory CSR communication as a consumer empowerment strategy and providing empirical evidence for the effect of participatory CSR on public responses. The overall findings support the notion that CSR communication as an important function of public relations can generate public engagement with the organization and further co-create meaning with publics for mutual benefit.
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Soo-Yeon Kim and Jeong-Hyeon Lee
This study aims to explore consumers' perceptions of stealing thunder and to investigate significant factors for maximizing its effect.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore consumers' perceptions of stealing thunder and to investigate significant factors for maximizing its effect.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a mixed-methods approach. First, qualitative responses from 286 Korean participants were collected and analyzed (Study 1). Second, the experiment employed a randomized 2 (crisis communication timing: stealing thunder vs thunder) × 2 (transparent vs nontransparent communication) × 2 (follow-up actions: good vs poor) between-subjects experimental design with 426 Korean participants to investigate and confirm the results of Study 1.
Findings
Qualitative data showed that the participants' evaluation of corporations' stealing thunder strategy is complicated. Some do not perceive corporate use of stealing thunder at face value, but rather view it as yet another hopeless, selfish and irresponsible crisis communication strategy, distrusting it based on strong cynicism toward all corporations. An experiment confirmed that stealing thunder was significantly more effective in eliciting consumers' ethical judgment (EJ) and word-of-mouth (WOM) on corporations than the thunder strategy. Significant two-way interaction effects between crisis timing and follow-up actions showed that the stealing thunder strategy should be accompanied by follow-up actions to increase consumers' credibility and WOM intentions.
Originality/value
This study investigated how consumers evaluate stealing thunder by adopting both a qualitative and quantitative approach to explore how they make meaning out of this phenomenon.
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Chang Soo Sung and Joo Yeon Park
This study aims to understand the benefits and challenges associated with the adoption of a blockchain-based identity management system in public services by conducting an…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the benefits and challenges associated with the adoption of a blockchain-based identity management system in public services by conducting an academic literature review, and to explore the design of such a system that can be applied to the Korean government.
Design/methodology/approach
This study explores the adoption of a blockchain-based identity management system using a literature review and an actual design case intended for use by the government sector.
Findings
Blockchain-based identity management systems can significantly improve transparency, accountability, and reliability in the user control of one's own data while reducing the time and cost needed to deliver public services, as well as increasing administrative efficiency. However, it is not always easy to implement such systems, and introducing new technologies in the government field requires a complicated, time-consuming process. There is currently an appetite for research extending beyond the typical technology-driven approach to elucidate the government adoption of new technologies and explore its implications.
Practical implications
The idea behind this system is that by storing and managing personal information on the blockchain and providing mobile apps to customers, users can log in or retrieve previously authenticated personal information without having to go through an authentication process. Since users do not need to go through the verification process every time, it is expected that they will be able to access only the necessary personal information more quickly and conveniently without having to deal with unnecessary details. In addition, the blockchain-based operation of a public service effectively increases the transparency and reliability of that service and reduces the social costs caused by personal information leakage.
Originality/value
This study introduces the design of a blockchain-based identity management system that can be used in public services, specifically in the Korean government sector for the first time. Along with a literature review, the implications that this study gleans from these real-world use cases can contribute to this field of research.
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This study aims to explore the role of restaurant experienscape in affecting diners' emotions and satisfaction with solo dining, considering the moderating role of solo dining…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the role of restaurant experienscape in affecting diners' emotions and satisfaction with solo dining, considering the moderating role of solo dining willingness and public self-consciousness (PSC).
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 403 Korean customers who had dined alone at restaurants in the past three months participated in this study. Structural equation modeling, including multiple group analysis, was conducted to examine the hypotheses.
Findings
The dining atmosphere influenced solo diners' positive emotions but not their negative emotions. Responses from other guests and the interactional fairness of employees affected solo diners' negative emotions but not their positive emotions. Food sensory influences both positive and negative emotions. This study found that PSC significantly moderated the effect of the dining atmosphere on positive emotions, and solo dining willingness significantly moderated the impact of food sensory on positive emotions.
Practical implications
This study suggests that restaurant managers should pay close attention to providing fair service to all customers by training and educating employees because the unfair treatment that solo diners receive from employees affects focal customers' negative emotions.
Originality/value
The experienscape model was applied to the solo dining context based on Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus–organism–response paradigm and Pizam and Tasci's (2019) experienscape concept, which reflects the growing trend in solo dining.
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Chul Hyun Uhm, Chang Soo Sung and Joo Yeon Park
This study aims to explore Accelerators and their practices in sustaining start-ups within their innovative programs for these companies based on the resource-based perspective…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore Accelerators and their practices in sustaining start-ups within their innovative programs for these companies based on the resource-based perspective. Moreover, with an ever-increasing demand for Accelerators amongst start-up companies, this study also demonstrates the importance of Accelerators, as it pertains to new venture creation.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses an exploratory case study approach to examine a comparative view of leading Accelerator companies in the USA and Korea based on resource support.
Findings
The results of this study show that there are a number of differences between Accelerators of the two countries in terms of the resources they support for early-stage start-ups. The findings also show some similarities. However, in Korea, the Accelerator landscape is limited, where mentorship, resources and investments are not readily accessible, resulting in low success rates for Korean start-up companies. These limitations have had a negative trickle-down effect when providing entrepreneurs with strong access to resources and investors, which highly affects the success rates of early-stage start-ups.
Practical implications
In terms of the resource-based theory, this study contributes to the growth of early start-ups by emphasizing the role of the accelerator and suggesting the extent and impact that entrepreneurs have access to resources and investors.
Originality/value
With significant growth in start-ups around the world, the necessity for start-up funding and mentorship has increased drastically. Start-up companies need various types of assets, systems, knowledge and information to achieve their goals. In Accelerators, start-ups receive all the aforementioned resources while also improving their entrepreneurial skills. Start-up companies have many options in seeking investors who support both tangible and intangible resources to boost growth. While there is a wealth of information on traditional funding methods, there are few studies that shed light on the role of Accelerators from the resource-based point of view.
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Young-Myon Lee and Michael Byungnam Lee
While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s…
Abstract
While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s when academics began to write books and papers on the Korean labor movement, labor laws, and labor economics. In this paper, we sketch this history and describe important events and people that contributed to the development of industrial relations in Korea. Korean industrial relations in the early 20th century were significantly distorted by the 35-year-Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). After regaining its independence, the U.S. backed, growth-oriented, military-based, authoritarian Korean government followed suit and consistently suppressed organized labor until 1987. Finally, the 1987 Great Labor Offensive allowed the labor movement to flourish in a democratized society. Three groups were especially influential in the field of industrial relations in the early 1960s: labor activists, religious leaders, and university faculty. Since then, numerous scholars have published books and papers on Korean industrial relations, whose perspectives, goals, and processes are still being debated and argued. The Korean Industrial Relations Association (KIRA) was formed on March 25, 1990 and many other academic and practitioner associations have also come into being since then. The future of industrial relations as a field of study in Korea does not seem bright, however. Issues regarding organized labor are losing attention because of a steadily shrinking unionization rate, changing societal attitude toward labor unions, and the enactment of new and improved laws and regulations regarding employment relationships more broadly. Thus, we suggest that emerging issues such as contingent workers, works councils and tripartite partnership, conflict management, and human rights will be addressed by the field of industrial relations in Korea only if this field breaks with its traditional focus on union and union–management relations.
Soo Yeon Kwak, Minjung Shin, Minwoo Lee and Ki-Joon Back
This study aims to integrate reviewers’ and readers’ discrepant perspectives on extremely negative reviews. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between negative…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to integrate reviewers’ and readers’ discrepant perspectives on extremely negative reviews. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between negative emotion intensity levels and reviews helpfulness on two platforms: integrated websites and social networking sites (SNS) to emphasize the role of platform types on customers’ purchase decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a mixed-method approach of business intelligence approach and quasi-experimental design. Study 1 performed text mining and Welch’s t-test to compare reviewers’ negative emotion intensity levels on two platforms. Study 2 adopted a 2*2 factorial quasi-experimental design to examine how intense negative emotions impact the perceived reviews helpfulness on two platforms. A 3*2 factorial design in Study 3 also tested social tie strength’s moderating effect between the intensity of negative emotions and review helpfulness.
Findings
The current study reveals that integrated website reviewers tend to express more extreme negative emotions than SNS reviewers. SNS and integrated website readers deem reviews that embed severe negative emotions as less helpful. The moderating role of social tie strength between extremely negative emotions on review helpfulness was insignificant in the study.
Research limitations/implications
This study enriches the online review literature by comparing writers’ and readers’ perspectives on online reviews with extremely negative emotions across two online platform types: integrated websites and SNS. From the writers’ perspective, this study highlights anonymity and the presence of an audience as essential factors that reviewers consider in selecting an online review platform to express themselves. This research also sheds light on how readers’ perspectives on extremely negative reviews conflict with the presumptions of writers of extremely negative reviews on integrated websites by demonstrating that content embedding extremely negative emotions is less helpful regardless of platform type.
Practical implications
This research provides online negative review management strategies to platform and hotel managers. The findings suggest hotel and review platform managers should consider adopting review alignment or monitoring systems based on negative emotions intensity levels since readers on both platforms perceive reviews embedding extremely negative emotions as less helpful. Additionally, hotel managers can progress promotions to guests who share online reviews on SNS since SNS reviewers are more likely to attenuate their extremely negative emotions when writing reviews.
Originality/value
This research innovatively provides a comprehensive overview of negative reviews’ production and consumption process from reviewers’ and readers’ perspectives. This research also provides practitioners insight into the nature of two different platform types and the management of negative reviews on these platforms.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify the cause how the student movement in South Korea enjoyed the golden age in the 1970–1990s and could not be revived since the late 1990s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the cause how the student movement in South Korea enjoyed the golden age in the 1970–1990s and could not be revived since the late 1990s and cannot be played a pivotal role again.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts historical analysis as primary methodology, traced the historical evolution of South Korean student activism in the 1970–1990s through analyzing secondary Korean literature and newspaper on the particular struggle cases in the period.
Findings
Social solidarity between society and student had played a pivotal role in the South Korean students' long activism in the struggle of the 1970–1990s. In the 1970–1980s, democratic election and constitutional reform set in the main purpose of struggle that attracted wide support from society and enjoyed maintaining a new member supply and their commitment despite authoritarian government's persistent oppression. When the sixth constitution was passed in 1987 with Democratization, the student decided to choose continuing struggle and set social cooperation with North Korea as the new goal, the sensitive issue in South Korea that confronted fierce criticism. Society chose to withdraw their support to the activism in the Yonsei University incident of 1996, rung a knell of long struggle since the 1970s.
Originality/value
The research identified the cause how South Korean students in university could persist long strike without particular internal resource production during three decades and ended the long struggle in the late 1990s; the existence of social solidarity between student and society was the main reason of continued new member supply and their commitment in the battle.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework for marketing cultural goods (e.g. music) to global markets by examining modes of entry and positioning strategies used by…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline a framework for marketing cultural goods (e.g. music) to global markets by examining modes of entry and positioning strategies used by media producers of the South Korean music industry.
Design/methodology/approach
An historic analysis was implemented to investigate the modalities and structures through which cultural products are produced and disseminated. Data for this study came from 314 articles collected from www.allkpop.com, a leading English-language, South Korean popular culture news site.
Findings
The cultural technology framework consists of the institutionalization of cultural technology, exportation of cultural content, collaborations with local talent, and joint ventures with local markets.
Research limitations/implications
The findings emerge from an analysis of South Korean popular music industries, and further research is needed to generalize the results across cultural industries.
Practical implications
The cultural technology framework can be applied to cultural industries such as music, film, comics, and art, where culture and language could be barriers to adoption.
Originality/value
This study outlines a framework for the modes of entry and positioning strategies of cultural goods (e.g. music) in international markets. Extant literature has examined global marketing from the purview of durable consumer goods and brands, with limited insights into cultural products. More broadly, this paper addresses the call for more qualitative inquiry into international marketing topics.