PurposeThis paper seeks to explore such questions as: “What are the impacts of foreign investors and what are the channels through which foreign investors contribute to or detracts from firm value in Korea?” It aims to discuss how foreign investors and foreign outside directors interact to enhance firm value.Design/methodology/approachUsing longitudinal data from the KOSPI200 index in Korea during 2004‐2007, the study examined the direct and interaction effect of foreign blockholders and foreign board members. To address the representativeness of foreign investors, the authors verified the mandates of foreign board members though telephone interviews.FindingsForeign block shareholders and foreign outside directors respectively provide expertise and independent monitoring over management. Foreign blockholders' management control via board membership is likely to mitigate leverage of value enhancement when foreign outside directors represent private interests of foreign blockholders. The moderating effect is also supported since foreign ownership concentration has an inverted U‐shaped relationship with value enhancement. The paper confirms that board independence reinforces the positive impact of foreign outside directors on firm value.Research limitations/implicationsThis study offers a key to understanding corporate governance in that mutual monitoring and a balance among various types of stakeholders are crucial to value enhancement.Originality/valueThe paper provides clues to the extant diverse findings concerning the impact of foreign investors on firm value. It applies an integrated perspective to the empirical analyses of the impact of foreign investors by giving consideration to the agency – foreign outside directors – to implement management control on behalf of foreign blockholders.

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The development and commercialization of advanced technologies will depend increasingly on efficient technology transfer and technology trading systems. This requires the development of technology markets or exchanges and hence a reliable technology valuation methodology. This paper develops a methodology for an objective and impartial valuation of fully developed technologies.A web-based technology valuation system is developed with which interested users can make efficient and real-time evaluations of technologies.

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We analyze determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in non-competitive industries. We develop a micro-level FDI determination model that allows for nonzero mark-up, and estimate it using the administrative FDI recipient records and annual financial statement data for Korean state owned enterprises (SOE). Using SOEs as our research objects can rule out the endogeneities of mark-up, firm ownership structure and the associated vertical or horizontal incentive FDI. This yields a consistent estimation of the effect of mark-up and other productivity-related factors on FDI. From the empirical analysis, we find that FDI is more likely to flow into firms with large-scale physical capital and output, and a positive mark-up, and the effect is the inverse of the number of workers in the firms, which implies that FDI might not cause productivity spillover effect in non-competitive industries.