Title: Features of Korean SMEs exchange exposure

Authors: Sunghee Choi; Woohyung Lee

Addresses: Department of International Commerce, Keimyung University, 2800 Dalgubbeoldaero, Daegu, South Korea ' Department of Economics and Finance, Keimyung University, 2800 Dalgubbeoldaero, Daegu, South Korea

Abstract: By making use of a new case study of Korean small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), I document three remarkable features of exchange exposure of Koran SMEs during 2007∼2011. First, about 19% of the total 351 sample SMEs is significantly exposed to exchange rate changes, which is a higher percentage than prior common results. Second, exchange exposure of Korean SMEs with lower R&D expenditure is more likely to be significantly estimated. Third, the degree of exchange exposure increases as export dependency per employee increases, which shows the situation that Korean SMEs are lack of exchange risk hedging although they highly depend on export.

Keywords: SME exchange exposure; South Korea; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; exposure degree; exchange rate changes; R&D expenditure; research and development; export dependency; exchange risk hedging; exports; exchange rates.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMEF.2015.072345

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, 2015 Vol.8 No.3, pp.302 - 317

Received: 24 Dec 2014
Accepted: 30 Apr 2015
Published online: 09 Oct 2015 *

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