The internationalization of Korean firms and its impact on managerial sophistication

This project explores the various developments of modern management system with the increasing internationalization of Korean firms. It also investigates in depth the operational aspects of Korean firms, in terms of functional fields such as technology, production, marketing, organizational control, strategic planning, and human resource management.The primary goal of the study is to examine the relationship between the firms' internationalization and sophistication of their management system. Specifically, attempts have been made to see whether there is a systematic market-driven pressure for management development when a firm becomes actively engaged in international business. The study hypothesizes that international market-oriented firms would achieve the most sophisticated managerial and technological system than foreign supplier-oriented firms or domestic market-oriented firms. Results confirm that there are strong association between level of internationalization and level of sophistication in most managerial aspects except marketing research, decentralization and selection practices. Especially for practices in technology, production, and strategic planning areas, there are consistent differences in sophistication found among the three types of firms. Based on the literature review, the thesis also hypothesizes that firms pursuing diversification strategy over the long run would become more sophisticated than ones with concentration strategy in terms of market, product, customer, and channel. Among the four diversification variables, product diversification and channel diversification are the most significant. The thesis examines the implications of the results in terms of policy making of the Third World multinational corporations, and directions for future research are proposed.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio