Go big or stay home? Korean machinery firms, trade fair dynamics and export performance

Abstract

With heightened global competition, many manufacturers export as a process by which to increase sales and expand into new markets. South Korean manufacturers export in order to expand outside of a small domestic market, but confront the constraints of many exporters (especially smaller firms), including access to market intelligence and geographically distant prospective customers. This article examines efforts by machine tool manufacturers to minimize the friction of distance involved with exporting through the use of international trade fairs. Analytical emphases are placed on the influence of individual export destinations and on the role of firm size vis-à-vis firm export intensities and overall export strategies and motivations.

Keywords::

• exports
• Korea
• machinery
• manufacturing
• trade fairs

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Northeast Asian Council, Association for Asian Studies, for its generous financial assistance on this project.

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. In terms of innovation within advanced machinery industries, this article employs MacPherson's (1997, 128) definition that takes into account, ‘… the successful design, development and subsequent commercialization of a new or substantially improved product’.

^3. Some of the largest machine tool exhibitions include EMO (Exposition Mondiale de la Machine Outil – Hannover, Germany), JIMTOF (Japan International Machine Tool Fair – Tokyo, Japan), CIMT (China International Machine Tool Show – Beijing), TIMTOS (Taipei International Machine Tool Show) and IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show – Chicago, IL).

^4. The list was informed by commonly used geographical market descriptions from the industrial trade literature.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ronald V. Kalafsky

Ronald Kalafsky is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee. His research explores the performance, strategies and location-based challenges of manufacturers and exporters located in industrialized economies. Current projects include studies of manufacturers in Canada, Japan and Korea.

Douglas R. Gress

Douglas Gress, a long-time resident of Seoul, is currently an associate professor of economic geography at Seoul National University's College of Education. His research primarily concerns Korean firms and firm networks.