earticle

영어

The study investigates two prolonged controversial issues concerning Korean Chaebols vs. non- Chaebols. The Korean Chaebol can be thought of, in a macro sense, as similar to the Japanese Keiretsu, although there are several differences which are noted in the paper. One of the issues investigated is whether firms belonging to the Chaebol in Korea have different market-value-based debt ratios (i.e., higher “leverage”) than their counterparts not belonging to the Chaebol. If this is so, there are several managerial implications. Results indicate that, for the period studied, firms in the chaebol did have a higher mean leverage than their counterparts. The other issue addressed used logistic regression analysis to determine that firms belonging to the chaebol appeared to possess different levels of the following characteristics in comparison with firms not belonging to the chaebol: larger size measured by total sales, higher sales growth rate, lower profitability, and lower business risk (although the latter difference was not statistically significant, only directional). We focus on these results and their managerial implications. Few studies have focused systematically on these issues. Domestic policy-makers implementing managerial policies in Korea or many other developing nations may take into account the results of this study to prevent or minimize unanticipated mismanagement leading to financial turmoil.