Some errors and discrepancies were discovered in the course of using the data 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report. The book was missing total sales figures of several companies while those companies were involved in internal transactions within the group. The data also indicated that some companies had bigger internal transactions figures than total sales figures.
Corrections were made in two steps: First, missing total firm sales figures were collected, if available, from the book, Hankuk Kiup Chongram (Korea business firms). Because the
missing data were mostly of small and new firms in chaebol, they were not found in the printed publication. In that case, personal contact was made with the publisher of 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report, and correct data and explanations for discrepancies were provided by the publisher. If total sales data for 1989 were still not available, then data from other years were used instead.
(a) Corrections on internal transactions figures
i. Correction was made based upon additional data that the publisher of 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report provided.
ii. In the book, 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report, company 30222 sells 7282 hundred million won to company 30205. The figure 7282 is corrected to 3452.
iii. Company 30533 sells 354 hundred million won to company 30501. Correct selling figure is 307.
iv. The book mistakenly indicates that company 33501 sells 1279 million won to itself. The figure must be moved to next column, company 33504.
v. According to the book, 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report, internal transaction figures of Hyundai Electronics (company code: 30107) is bigger than total sales figure. The publisher responded to this error as follows: “According to our data sources, Hyundai Corporation(30104) reported that the company purchased 696100 million won from Hyundai Electronics (30107). But Hyundai electronics reported that they did not sell to Hyundai Corporation. It would be OK to consider total sales of 30107 as amounts of the company's internal sales.”
(b) Corrections to the total sales figure
i. Total sales figure for company 30317 is 3397 hundred million won,
ii. Company 30107, 30404, 32109, 34810 have bigger internal transaction figures than total sales figures. According to the 1990 Chaebol Analysis Report, total sales for 30107, 30404, 32109, and 34810 are 538,345 million won, 5,499 million won, 1,167 million won, and 4,242 million won respectively, and internal sales are 700,132 million won, 8,993 million won, 4,789 million won, and 10,206 million won respectively. Since it is impossible to have larger internal sales than total sales, the total sales figures of those four companies were changed to the internal sales figures.
(c) Addition of total sales figures
i. Data collected from the publisher:
30243, 30317, 30535, 30808, 31027, 31907, 35205(1991 data), 35805(1991 data) ii. Data collected from Korea Business Firms (1990 data)
30109, 30154, 30240, 30241, 30348, 30355, 31331, 33405, 35206.
iii. Data collected from Yearbook on the Korean Economy and Business 1991/92 31008 (1989 data)
C. Business Groups in Taiwan, 1983 & 1986 (TFNAME86.XLS, TGNAME86.XLS,
TFIRM83/86.XLS, TGROUP83/86.XLS, TOWNER83.XLS)
(a) Sources
Business Groups in Taiwan, 1985/1986 and Business Groups in Taiwan, 1988/1989.
Published by China Credit Information Service, Ltd., Taipei. 1985 and 1987. The original data was published in Chinese, translation and data entry was done during 1989-91.
(b) Files
The database has seven files:
TFNAME86.XLS Firms' basic data (1983 & 1986). This file includes all basic data for a firm that is not likely to change for different years (such as firm ID, the year established, initial capital, industrial sector code, etc.)
TGNAME86.XLS Groups' basic data (1983 & 1986). This file contains group ID and name. TFIRM83.XLS Firm level 1983 data.
TFIRM86.XLS Firm level 1986 data.
TGROUP83.XLS Group level 1983 data. The data in this file is aggregated from TFIRM83. Some of the data are not equal to, and we believe more accurate than, what is listed in the source book table in pp. 62-69.
TGROUP86.XLS Group level 1986 data. The data in this file is aggregated from TFIRM86. Some of the data are not equal to, and we believe more accurate than, what is listed in the source book table in pp. 2-6.
TOWNER83.XLS This provides information on the owners of the firms for 1983.
The year designations (83 or 86) correspond to the actual year of the data, not the dates in the title of the source books (which Rae year of publication).
(c) Variables
The following variable names are consistently throughout the database. FIRMID ID code assigned to each firm (including both local and foreign firms). GROUPID ID code assigned to each group.
COREFIRM(83/86) Designating whether a firm is the core firm of the group. There are two possible values: Yes (=1) and No (=2).
GRUPNAME(83/86) The name of the group. Because group formation may change and the group name also may change, names for both years are listed.
FIRMNAME(83/86) Same as above.
ESTABLISH The year the firm was established. INITIALCAP The start-up capital of the firm.
SECTOR Industrial sector designation according to the United Nations' system (see Indexes to the international standard industrial classification of all economic activities, New York: United Nations, 1971.)
MERGERYEAR The year the firm merged into the group. GFIRMS(83/86) How many firms in a group.
Variables with self-explanatory variable names:
FCAPITAL(83/86), FWORKER(83/86), FASSETS(83/86), FSALES(83/86) are for firm level data. (The first letter "F" means firm. All currency in NT$ 1 thousand.)
GASSETS(83/86), GSALES(83/86), GNETWRTH(83/86), GPROFITS(83/86),
GWORKER(83/86) are for group level data. (The first letter "G" means group. All currency in NT$ 1 million.)
Some variables are not reliable and incomplete. They are in the file for future reference, but we do not recommend that they be used. They are: PUBSTOCK(83/86), FORGNCAP(83/86), TECHLINK(83/86)
Additional variables that are used within the file TOWNER83.XLS:
CORE_FM_PL Designating whether this is a core firm in the group or a core person in the group. (Yes =1, No =2).
OWNERNAME The name of the owner of a firm. "Owner" means major shareholder of a firm. It can be a person or a firm. All names in Chinese (including Japanese and English names which were translated into Chinese in the source book) were translated using PinYin system published by the Chinese government.
OWNERID The ID code of owner. The following ID naming rules were used:
• For Taiwanese names, there are seven alphabets or 0: First 3 of the family name + first 2 of the first character of the given name + the first and the third alphabets of the second character of the given name. Example: DONG JIAN HUA = DONJIHA
• If there are missing characters (e.g., single character given name), then the last two digits are 0. Example: SHANG WU = SHAWU00
• If a married woman's name has four characters, discard the last character. Example: PENG DONG XIAO PING = PENDOXA
• If the owner is a Japanese, use the first alphabet of the fourth character. Example: QIAN YE GENG ZAO = QIAYEGNZ
• If the owner is a firm, for those firms listed as a member firm of a group, its FIRMID is the OWNERID. Example: T0003, T0823.
• If a firm is not a member firm of any group (both Taiwanese and foreign firms), begin the ID with a "#", then follow the same rule as with people's name. Examples: WAN BAO DEVELOPMENT = #WANBADV, ASSOCIATE INTERNATIONAL
(LIBERIA) = #ASSIN00
• For the purpose of easy identification, some foreign firms' OWNERID are not assigned according to the above mentioned rules. Examples: SUMIMOTO CHEMICALS = #SUMICHE, SUMIMOTO TRADING = #SUMITRA
TITLE Designates a person's position(s) title. Firms can only be a major shareholder (=3). 1 = Chair person of the board of directors.
2 = General manager. 3 = Major shareholder.
4 = Vice-chair.
5 = Vice-general manager.