A Win-Win Cooperation Strategy for Big and Small Businesses: 10 Policy Proposals

While the need for cooperation between big businesses and small and medium-size firms has been steadily pointed out ever since the early 1990s, this discussion has never taken as emphatic a tone as today. Talked about often as a "win-win strategy" or means toward "mutual growth and survival," cooperation between big and small businesses is assigned a level of urgency previously unheard of or seen. Few countries around the world have in place as many or as well-developed support programs toward small and medium-size businesses as Korea. The Korean government's policy, however, has thus far been somewhat overly focused on the protection or incubation of small and medium-size businesses and less concerned about how to help them create new jobs or assist them in their transition toward becoming bigger operations. Growth among Korea's small and medium-size companies has been stalled in recent years, and domestic demand continuously shrinking. The slump in these economic sectors, in stark contrast to thriving large corporations and booming exports, prompts one to call in question the effectiveness of small and medium-size business policy programs currently in place in Korea.