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Evolution of Samsung group and its central office: Imperfect market and capacity-building

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Abstract

The history of Samsung and its central office shows the influence of exogenous social and economic change on business-group structures and the endogenous development of capacity in a business group. This paper investigates how transaction cost operates in regard to group size and the functions retained or otherwise, centralized or decentralized, by central office. In relation to business-group development, the effectiveness of transaction cost and active capacity-building are examined and weighed. Entrepreneurs reacting to external changes have raised group capabilities and sought to maintain group integrity. The central-office activities of allocation, ratification, nurturing, and sharing are also discussed and conceptualized.

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Figure 1

Sources Numbers of affiliates are available from KISinfo (Korea Investors Service Information) and Fair Trade Commission (FTC) from 1987. For information prior to 1987, I calculated the number based upon published historical material such as Samsung 50 years’ History (Samsung, 1988)

Figure 2

Sources As Figure 1

Figure 3

Source Fair Trade Committee in South Korea

Figure 4

Source Fair Trade Committee in South Korea

Figure 5

Source Kitaoka (2005)

Figure 6
Figure 7

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  1. Department of International Studies, Sejong University, Jiphyun-gwan 614, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea

    Philip PilSoo Choi

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Choi, P.P. Evolution of Samsung group and its central office: Imperfect market and capacity-building. Asian Bus Manage 15, 370–398 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-016-0011-1

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