Korea’s five leading industries-chemical, automobile, shipbuilding, metal and electronics-have been the growth engines of the Korean economy for the last 30 years. However, with their performance weakening in the past few years, Korea’s annual growth rate has dropped to less than 2%. Just as the Japanese economy struggled through the lost decades, Korea’s leading industries have been facing signals of arriving at a Strategic Inflection Point (“SIP”) since the mid-2000s. The objective of this study is to present an appropriate value strategy for Korean firms in leading industries to gain sustainable competitive advantages. This paper examines the following issues : First, it diagnoses the signs and timing of SIP for the five leading industries. Second, this study examines 78 Korean and Japanese firms in order to understand the adaptation strategies of the highest and lowest performing firms from a value strategy point of view. Third, it empirically analyzes the correlation between the indicators of value strategy and the accounting performances of the Korean and Japanese firms. The data set used in the cluster analysis were collected from KISLINE database of NICE Information Service and annual reports. The findings in the case analyses of high and low performing companies show that high value-added specialty chemical materials and electronic component manufacturers that had a strong focus on value creation were defined as high performing companies. And in the cosmetic and automobile industries, companies with a strong emphasis on value appropriation gained high performance. Furthermore, the study conducted a cluster analysis based on two indicators R&D and advertisement expense. The analysis shows that a significant gap exists in the operating incomes among three groups classified under the value strategy. The study recommends that Korean firms are requested to increase R&D expenditure, conduct M&A and collaborate with companies that own source technologies to narrow the technology gap and improve their segment portfolio from commodity to value-added products.

1. 서 론
 2. 선행 연구와 이론적 배경
  2.1 가치전략
  2.2 주력산업의 SIP 진단
 3. 한․일 기업의 적응전략 사례
  3.1 화학산업
  3.2 자동차산업
  3.3 조선산업
  3.4 철강산업
  3.5 전자산업
 4. 연구의 설계
  4.1 연구 모형
  4.2 변수의 조작적 정의
  4.3 표본선정과 자료수집
 5. 실증분석결과
  5.1 한국과 일본기업의 군집화
  5.2 군집별 경영성과 비교
 6. 시사점
  6.1 정책적 시사점
  6.2 기업 관점의 시사점
  6.3 향후 연구과제
 References

• 홍기철(한양대학교 일반대학원 경영컨설팅학과) | Kichul Hong (Graduate School of Management Consulting, Hanyang University)
• 박광호(한양대학교 ERICA캠퍼스 경상대학 경영학부) | Kwangho Park (Department of Business Administration, Hanyang University) Corresponding Author