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General definitions

• Chaebol: Means large company group is in Korea e.g. Samsung, Lucky Goldstar, Hyundai, Daewoo.
• Culture: Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines culture as the "total pattern of human behavior and its products embodied in speech, action, and artifacts and dependent upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations."
• Global company: A global company operates on a world-wide integrated system in which all the operations and strategies are interdependent. The use of a global, integrated strategy of an MNC should be able to bring the affiliates and other international operations together in a harmonious, synergistic way. Non-manufacturing companies may also globalize by establishing trade offices and exporting expertise (whether technical or managerial) overseas.
• Globalization: Globalization can be defined in several different ways depending on the level we choose to focus on:
  • At a worldwide level globalization refers to the growing economic interdependence among countries reflected in increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, capital and know-how.
  • At the level of a specific country, globalization refers to the extent of interlinkages between a country's economy and the rest of the world.
  • At the level of a specific industry globalization refers to the degree to which a company's competitive position within that industry in one country is interdependent with that in another country.
  • At the level of a specific company, globalization refers to the extent to which a company has expanded its revenue and asset base across countries and engages in cross-border flows of capital, goods and know-how across subsidiaries
• Industrial policy: Industrial policy can be defined as the wide range of government actions designed to promote growth and increase the competitiveness of a particular sector or sectors in an economy. Since such actions imply preferential treatment, it is logical to add to the definition the conditions that other sectors benefit indirectly from the support given to the targeted sectors and that none of them is damaged by the policy actions.
• Information: Information has several definitions, according to Webster's Dictionary. Just a few of the definitions include:
  • " knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance; news" "knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; data; facts" "the act or fact of informing"
  • " computer data at any stage of processing, as input, output, storage, or transmission"
• Internationalization: Internationalization is used synonymously with another word globalization. Globalization is the catchword of the day in international business. Globalization has various definitions. Some of them are listed below:
  • A strategy of approaching world-wide market with a standardised product.
  • An industry in which an organization's competitive position in one economy is significantly affected by its position in other economies and vice versa.
  • Establishing offices internationally and being export-oriented with the operation and control of the business still remaining in the home office
  • Developing a mindset to view the world as a whole - being a citizen of the world instead of the economy and seeing globalization as a business concept instead of a geographical one.
  • Internationalization is Building strong international linkages to foster open science and technology exchanges and partnerships with the world scientific community, as defined by NSTB, Singapore.
• MNCs/TNCs: There is no universal definition of Multinational Company (MNC/TNC) or Trans National Corporation (TNC). However the following points give food for thought:
  • MNC/TNC should have business interest outside its home economy.
  • The use of a global, integrated strategy of an MNC/TNC/TNC should be able to bring the affiliates and other international operations together in a harmonious, synergistic way.
  • MNC/TNC should have a minimum of 25% voting rights equity in at least three foreign economies. It should have a minimum of 5% of its sales or assets attributable to foreign investments. For including in directory, the firm should have a minimum of US$ 75 million in sales generated by foreign production operations.
  • Multinational Corporations:
    • networks of firms, linked together by ties of ownership and control, and operating in multiple countries.
    • MNCs are created through Direct Foreign Investment (DFI).
• R&D: In this project, R&D is defined in a broad sense to include activities from theoretical, applied and experimental research to development aimed at the improvement of: products, production equipment, and materials; product/ process implementation/ adaptation; and market monitoring.
  The global R&D activities involve the communication of technical knowledge in various directions. The individuals involved usually have a degree in a technical discipline, or a significant amount of technical experience at the least.
• Science park: A science park is normally a development project involving a site which: is in physical proximity to or has operational links with one or more institutions of higher education or centres of advanced research; is designed to encourage the formation and growth of knowledge-based firms; facilitates, through active intervention, the transfer of technology from the research and academic institution on site to the firms and organizations housed on the park or its surroundings.
  Generally it is a property development laid out like a park, to which new or existing research-based of the R&D departments of larger companies are attracted by the working conditions, either the physical proximity of a university or a research institute or simply the pleasant nature of the area. The principal purpose of science and technology parks is research, development and design, conceiving new products and developing them to the marketing stage. The R&D work conducted by firms in science parks is often limited to designing prototypes, while the manufacturing side of the business is located elsewhere, though some firms on science parks do engage in the production of one-off sophisticated items.
  In some instances, non-property based science parks have been established operating as linkages mechanisms and service providers. These are called virtual science parks.
• Workflow: Workflow has its foundation in the idea that business processes are actually sets of tasks done in a prescribed order that incorporate information from various sources. An example is a company's hiring process. Whenever an employment offer is made and accepted, a routine process is set in motion, information regarding such things as the new employee's payroll deductions, insurance benefits, photo ID, telephone number, and office location is collected, reviewed, and routed to other departments for processing. This information is traditionally routed as paperwork. However, workflow software allows this process to move from workstation to workstation and to be accomplished electronically.

Some definitions related to small businesses

A small business venture is any business that is independently owned and operated, not dominated in its field, and does not engage in any new marketing or innovative practices.

An entrepreneurial venture is one that engages in at least one of Schumpeter's four categories of behavior: that is, the principal goals of an entrepreneurial venture are profitability and growth and the business is characterised by innovative strategic practices.

A small business owner is an individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purpose of furthering personal goals. The business must be primary source of income and will consume the majority of one's time and resources. The owner perceives the business as an extension of his or her personality, intricately bound with family needs and desires.

An entrepreneur is an individual who establishes and manages a business for the principal purpose of profit and growth. The entrepreneur is characterised principally by innovative behavior and will employ strategic management practices in the business.