Yongsun Paik, Ph.D.
Professor of International Business and Management, College of Business Administration Loyola Marymount University
- Los Angeles CA
Media
Biography
Yongsun Paik is Professor of International Business and Management at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). He served as Director of the Center for Asian Business from 2010 to 2026 and as Director of the Center for International Business Education (CIBE) from 2018 to 2026. During this time, he led LMU's efforts to secure and administer consecutive U.S. Department of Education Title VI CIBE grants as principal investigator.
Paik's research interests encompass international human resource management, business ethics, international entrepreneurship and joint ventures, informal networks, and East Asian business and management. Prior to joining the LMU faculty in 1991, he taught at the University of Washington in Seattle and served as a country economist at the Export-Import Bank of Korea. He has also held visiting professorships at the University of Göttingen (Germany), Universidad Loyola Andalucía (Spain), Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam), Yonsei University (Korea) and Sogang University (Korea).
He is the author or co-author of three books and has published more than 60 articles in leading international business and management journals. His scholarly achievements have been recognized through numerous honors and awards, including a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, a Korea Foundation Fellowship Award, a Carnegie Bosch Institute Research Grant, a Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management, and a Best Paper Award from the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. At LMU, he has received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Works and Delta Sigma Pi’s Most Outstanding Faculty Person Award. Paik serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of World Business and Thunderbird International Business Review and is a former president of the Association of Korean Management Scholars.
Education
University of Washington, Seattle
Ph.D.
International Business
1991
University of Texas at Austin
M.A.
Latin America Studies
1986
Yonsei University, Korea
B.A.
Economics
1978
Social
Areas of Expertise
Event Appearances
Frontline International Business Conversations
Academy of International Business Virtual (https://www.aib.world/frontline-ib/yongsun-paik/)
2022-10-20
Conversations with Global Business Leaders: Global Talent Management
International Business Webinar Series hosted by GSU-CIBER Virtual (https://youtu.be/ZsZGx6dx2HQ)
2020-11-30
KORUS FTA 2.0: How to Succeed in the Korean Market
LMU CIBE Conference Celebrating the 93rd Annual World Trade Week https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ACC2rKN9RI
2019-05-03
Articles
Propagating a Permanent War Economy? U.S. FDI in Warring Host Countries
Multinational Management Review2024-01-10
Conventional wisdom suggests that war in the host country makes it unattractive for foreign firms to invest. To see if this is true for US firms on the aggregate, this paper aims to examine the veracity of a “permanent war economy” hypothesis, that foreign direct investment (FDI) may, in fact, increase in the host country not despite, but because of, war, i.e. one that lends credence to the idea that, in the USA, “defense [has] become one of constant preparation for future wars and foreign interventions rather than an exercise in response to one-off threats.”
Informal network context: deepening the knowledge and extending the boundaries of social network research in international human resource management
International Journal of Human Resource Management2022-06-22
While informal networking has been universally regarded as an important feature of expatriate effectiveness, respective network constructs (yongo, wasta, blat/svyazi, etc.) remain weakly understood when taking expatriates’ ability to connect to local networks into account. Drawing on informal institution and social capital theory, we present informal networks as an important contextual factor in international human resource management (IHRM), relevant to the work of expatriates in particular.
The Evolution of Business Ethics in China and the United States: Convergence, Divergence, or Crossvergence?
Management and Organizational Review2022-03-29
This study presents a cross-temporal comparison of managerial ethics in China and the US. Although it is well established that cross-cultural differences exist in business ethics and that culture and values in a society may evolve over time, little attention has been paid to the longitudinal changes in such cross-cultural differences that might have occurred over time. Building on three different perspectives on values evolution, namely, convergence, divergence, and crossvergence, we investigate whether and how cross-cultural differences in managerial ethical decision-making and the associated moral philosophy have changed in China and the US over the decade between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s.
Turning a liability into an asset of foreignness: Managing informal networks in Korea
Business Horizons2021-04-15
Although foreignness can bring both benefits and costs, much of the literature has focused on the liability of foreignness (LOF) while relatively little attention has been paid to the positive side. Despite the presence of LOFs, foreign companies may accrue some unique advantages from their foreign status, which are referred to as assets of foreignness (AOFs). Drawing upon social capital theory and institutional theory, this paper examines the issue of LOFs versus AOFs in the context of the informal networks in Korea and explores how foreign companies can manage their weaknesses in host country-specific informal networks to create value from their foreignness.
The impact of sub-national institutions on SMEs’ diversification into new businesses: Evidence from China
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development2019-07-11
This study explores how sub-national institutions affect the diversification of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into new businesses. Using a sample of 3240 SMEs in China, we found that the dominance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the development of market systems in a province were related to local SMEs’ diversification. Specifically, in provinces dominated by SOEs, SMEs were less likely to diversify into new businesses. The development of market systems tended to reduce the odds of diversification for SMEs that primarily served local markets, and lower the likelihood of unrelated diversification. As a rare attempt to examine the impact of sub-national institutions on SMEs’ diversification, this study contributes to the research on diversification, institutions, and SME management.
Convergence in International Business Ethics? A Comparative Study of Ethical Philosophies, Thinking Style, and Ethical Decision-making between US and Korean Managers
Journal of Business Ethics2017-07-17
This study investigates the relationship among ethical philosophy, thinking style, and managerial ethical decision-making. Based on the premise that business ethics is a function of culture and time, we attempt to explore two important questions as to whether the national differences in managerial ethical philosophies remain over time and whether the relationship between thinking style and ethical decision-making is consistent across different national contexts.
Does Gender Matter in the Export Performance of New Ventures? Mediation Effects of Firm-specific and Country-specific Advantages
Journal of International Management2016-12-01
Based on a sample of 4240 Korean firms, this study explores the relationship between owner gender and export performance of international new ventures (INVs) by investigating four mediating mechanisms: venture capital financing, upstream firm-specific advantages, downstream firm-specific advantages, and country-specific advantages. Our empirical findings are threefold: (1) female-owned ventures are disadvantageous in obtaining access to venture capital, but venture capital financing is not positively associated with their export performance; (2) male-owned ventures achieve better export performance through superior innovation and marketing capabilities (i.e., mediation effects) than their female-owned counterparts; (3) while gender is not associated with the home-region destination of exports, the country destination of exports within the Asia-Pacific region positively affects INVs' export performance.
Impact of Nationality Composition in Foreign Subsidiary on Its Performance: A Case of Korean Companies
International Journal of Human Resource Management2015-10-12
This study explores how the nationality compositions of management teams and employee groups in foreign subsidiaries can affect subsidiary performance. By analyzing firm-level data on 401 South Korean subsidiaries across 35 countries in the period between 2005 and 2007, we found that balanced compositions in both subsidiary management teams (SMTs) and subsidiary employee groups (SEGs) were positively associated with subsidiary performance. The results suggest that the benefits of balanced composition are higher for both innovative and coordinative tasks conducted by management teams and for simple computational tasks conducted by employee groups. The effect of the SMT and SEG compositions on subsidiary performance, however, may depend on the host country's institutional conditions. These findings have practical implications for multinational staffing strategies in order to ensure high performance in subsidiaries and for host country policies used to attract high quality foreign direct investments.
Institutional distance, host country and international business experience, and the use of parent country nationals
Human Resource Management Journal2013-07-11
This study examines how the institutional distance between a host country and a home country influences foreign subsidiary staffing, and how overseas business experience moderates the effect of institutional distance. Hypotheses regarding the effect of institutional distance on foreign subsidiary staffing are empirically tested using a sample of 2,980 foreign subsidiaries of Japanese firms. This study shows that although the ratio of parent country nationals to subsidiary employees decreases when firms face greater institutional distance, the absolute number of parent country nationals assigned to the subsidiary increases. This study also shows that firms with more overseas business experience replace host country nationals with parent country nationals when there is greater institutional distance.
Control in IJVs: Evidence from China
Journal of International Business Studies2010-04-23
In international joint ventures (IJVs), partner firms exert three types of management control: output, process, and social. Since management control critically influences IJV success, it is essential to understand what factors drive the development of the control system. Prior studies have focused mainly on IJVs’ internal conditions, and have largely neglected external institutional influences on IJV control. In this study we explore how host-country policies affect MNE partners’ control over their IJVs. Using a sample of IJVs in China, we find that MNE partners tend to exercise less output and process control when minority equity restriction is present, greater process control when they receive government incentives, and less social control when they are required to partner with state-owned enterprises. In contrast, the results of a post hoc analysis show that local partners’ control activities are not significantly influenced by these policies. Our findings provide new insights into IJV management by demonstrating the impacts of regulatory institutions on partners’ control activities.
Expatriate Managers and MNC’s Ability to Control International Subsidiaries: The Case of Japanese MNCs
Journal of World Business2004-02-02
Building upon the notion of behavioral means of control, this paper contends that the level of cultural knowledge of expatriates plays a critical role in determining the effectiveness of expatriates as a means of control over international subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). An empirical investigation with a sample of Japanese MNCs indicates that while expatriate personnel with adequate cultural knowledge of the host country contribute to the MNC’s control ability, those without cultural knowledge do not.
