Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship (벤처창업연구)

The Korean Society of Business Venturing (한국벤처창업학회)
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A Study on the Determinants of Investment in Startup Accelerators

스타트업 액셀러레이터의 투자결정요인에 대한 연구

  • Heo, Joo-yeun (Management of Technology, Graduate School of Yonsei University)
  • Received : 2020.07.09
  • Accepted : 2020.10.28
  • Published : 2020.10.31
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Abstract

Startup accelerators are a new type of investors providing a certain amount of shares for imparting education, mentoring, networking, and providing space and seed money that can directly resolve the difficulties faced by nascent entrepreneurs (Clarysse, 2016). Startup accelerators have expanded worldwide as their influence over the startup ecosystem has increasingly been established (Pauwels et al., 2016; Cohen & Hochberg, 2014). This study was conducted to derive investment determinants of startup accelerators that are emerging as major investment players around the world. To this end, the accelerator-type determinants of investment were derived. As previous research on this topic is nonexistent, this process involved qualitative meta-synthesis, literature reviews, observation, and in-depth interviews. First, more than 30 research papers were examined for the determinants of investment for firms at an early stage of their foundation, and the categories and determinants of investment in the relevant studies were comparatively analyzed using qualitative meta-synthesis. Further, related data were investigated to identify the characteristics of accelerators, and the startup evaluation process of US accelerators was studied. The more than 100 questions raised during this process were coded to examine the determinants of investment that accelerators considered important. In-depth interviews were conducted with four US accelerators to identify the characteristics of accelerators and key determinants of investment. Ultimately, 5 categories of accelerator-type determinants of investment and 26 subordinate determinants of investment were derived. The results were verified and supplemented by consulting with seven accelerators in Korea. The results were confirmed after pilot tests and verification by seven domestic accelerators. After confirming the accelerator-type determinants, the reliability of them was verified by examining the importance and priority of each category through the quantitative survey of Korean accelerators. The research that elicited the accelerator-type investment determinants is the first research and is expected to be a major reference to the progress of subsequent studies. This research that systematically derived the investment determinants of the accelerator is expected to make major contributions to the progress of follow-up studies, the process of selecting startups, and the investment decision-making process of the accelerators.

스타트업 액셀러레이터는 초기창업자들이 겪는 애로사항을 직접적으로 해결해 줄 수 있는 교육, 멘토링, 네트워킹, 공간, 시드머니(Seed money)등을 제공하고 일정 지분을 받는 새로운 형태의 투자주체이다(Clarysse, 2016). 스타트업 액셀러레이터들은 이들이 스타트업 생태계에 미치는 영향력이 입증되면서 전 세계적으로 확산되고 있다(Pauwels et al., 2016; Cohen & Hochberg, 2014). 본 연구는 이처럼 전 세계적으로 주요한 투자주체로 부상하고 있는 스타트업 액셀러레이터들의 투자결정요인을 도출하는 연구를 진행하였다. 먼저, 관련 선행연구가 부재한 상황이므로 정성적 메타합성법, 관련 자료조사, 관찰, 심층인터뷰의 과정을 거쳤다. 우선 창업초기 기업에 대한 투자결정요인에 대한 선행연구 30여 편을 선정하여 해당연구에 나타난 투자결정요인들을 정성적 메타합성법을 통해 비교·분석하였다. 그리고 액셀러레이터의 특성을 반영하기 위해서 액셀러레이터들의 평가과정에 대한 자료들을 조사하였으며, 실제로 이루어진 미국 액셀러레이터들의 스타트업 평가과정을 관찰하였다. 이 때 나타난 100여개의 질문을 근거이론의 코딩 기법을 활용하여 분석하였다. 더불어 미국 액셀러레이터들을 대상으로 심층 인터뷰를 진행하여 액셀러레이터의 특성과 주요 투자결정요인 등을 파악하였다. 이를 통해 최종적으로 5개 카테고리, 26개 세부 투자결정요인으로 이루어진 '액셀러레이터 형 투자결정요인'을 도출하였다. 그리고 이의 결과를 국내 액셀러레이터들의 검토를 받고 확정한 후, 국내 액셀러레이터를 대상으로 한 정량조사를 통해 각 카테고리 내, 중요도 및 우선순위를 살펴봄으로써 이의 신뢰성 및 액셀러레이터들이 중요하게 생각하는 투자결정요인 등을 확인하였다. 이렇게 액셀러레이터의 투자결정요인을 체계적으로 도출한 연구는 최초의 연구로써 후속연구들의 진행 및 스타트업 선정과정, 액셀러레이터의 투자결정 과정 등에 주요한 기여를 할 수 있으리라 기대한다.

Keywords

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