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

  • 제16권2호
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  • Pages.51-78
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  • 2021
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  • 1975-7557(pISSN)
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  • 2671-9509(eISSN)
한국벤처창업학회 (The Korean Society of Business Venturing)
권호 표지

초고성장 기업의 산업/시장 특성과 전략 선택에 대한 탐색적 연구: 'Inc. the 5,000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America' 기업 중 연간 매출액 1억 달러 이상 기업을 중심으로

An Exploratory Study on the Industry/Market Characteristics of the 'Hyper-Growing Companies' and the Firm Strategies: A Focus on Firms with more than Annual Revenue of 100 Million dollars from 'Inc. the 5,000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America'

  • 이영달 (대구과학경북과학기술원) ;
  • 오소영 (뉴욕시립대학교 버룩칼리지)
  • Lee, Young-Dall (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology) ;
  • Oh, Soyoung (Baruch College, The City University of New York)
  • 투고 : 2021.03.10
  • 심사 : 2021.04.27
  • 발행 : 2021.04.30
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초록

'스케일업(scale-up)'은 '스타트업(startup)'에 이어 기업 현장이나 정책 현장에서 모두에서 중요한 주제로 다루어지고 있다. 특히 산업계와 정책 분야에서는 범용적으로 사용되는 용어임에도 불구하고, 학술적인 측면에서는 이에 대한 '개념 정의' 조차도 이루어지지 못했다. 학술적인 측면에서의 '기업 성장(firm growth)'과 경영 현장에서의 '비즈니스 성장(business growth)'은 서로 다른 이해를 갖고 있는 실정이다(Achtenhagen et al., 2010). 기업의 성장과 관련한 그간의 관련 연구는 Penrose(1959)의 '자원의 결합체(bundle)로서의 기업'과 '관리자의 역할론' 관점에서 크게 벗어나지 못하고 있다. 경제학 이론 및 배경을 기초로 주로 성장 요인 및 패턴을 살피는 차원에서의 연구가 주류를 이루고 있다. 기업의 경영현장에서 관심을 갖는 '스케일업' 맥락의 연구, 즉 상대적으로 성장의 속도와 지속성-일정기간의 '매출액 연평균 성장률'-관점의 연구는 활발히 이루어지지 못하였다. 기업의 초기 단계에는 매출액 규모가 작기 때문에 연간 단위 매출액 성장률은 상대적으로 높은 특성을 지닌다. 그러나, 한국 기준 '중견기업'으로 분류되기 시작하는 연간 매출액 1천억원 이상 수준이 되면 기업의 성장률은 이전과 같이 높은 수준을 보이기 쉽지 않다. 본 연구의 표본이 되는 최근 3년간의 연평균 매출액 성장률이 15% 이상 되는 '고성장 기업' 5천개 중 매출액 1억 달러 이상 기업은 6.7%인 333개에 한정된다. 그만큼 일정한 기업 규모 이상의 수준에서 지속적인 '고성장'을 보인다는 것은 쉽지 않다. 본 연구는, 기업/산업 미디어인 'Inc.'의 '2020 고성장(fastest-growing) 기업 5,000' 리스트 중 연간 매출액 1억 달러(원화 약 1천2백 억원) 이상 기업 333개를 대상으로, 1) 고성장 기업군(최근 3년-2016~19년- CAGR 15%~39.9%), 2) 초고성장 기업군(40.0%~99.9%), 3) 슈퍼 고성장 기업군(100% 이상)으로 구분 짓고, 각 성장속도 군 별 특성을 심층적으로 분석해 보았다. 또한, 기업의 매출액 성장률과 개별 기업의 전략 선택(시장 지향성, 본원적 전략, 성장 전략, 선도 전략), 산업 및 시장 환경, 기업의 업력 간의 상호관계를 양적 탐색을 통해 규명하였다. 따라서 본 연구결과를 토대로 개별 기업의 측면에서는 성장전략의 경로와 요인을 조합하여 구성하는 '초고성장 모델(Hyper-Growing Model)'을 참고할 수 있도록 하고, 정책적인 측면에서는 기업의 성장을 촉진하기 위해 어떤 요소나 환경을 '최적 유효 조합'의 형태로 다루어야 하는지 그 참고를 제공하고자 한다. 그리고 학술적인 측면에서는 21세기 기업환경에서 '스케일업 이론' 및 '기업 성장 이론'을 후속적으로 연구 하는데 그 기초 참고를 제공하고자 한다.

Followed by 'start-up', the theme of 'scale-up' has been considered as an important agenda in both corporate and policy spheres. In particular, although it is a term commonly used in industry and policy fields, even a conceptual definition has not been achieved from the academic perspective. "Corporate Growth" in the academic aspect and "Business Growth" in the practical management field have different understandings (Achtenhagen et al., 2010). Previous research on corporate growth has not departed from Penrose(1959)'s "Firm as a bundle of resources" and "the role of managers". Based on the theory and background of economics, existing research has mainly examined factors that contribute to firms' growth and their growth patterns. Comparatively, we lack knowledge on the firms' growth with a focus on 'annual revenue growth rate'. In the early stage of the firms, they tend to exhibit a high growth rate as it started with a lower level of annual revenue. However, when the firms reach annual revenue of more than 100 billion KRW, a threshold to be classified as a 'middle-standing enterprise' by Korean standards, they are unlikely to reach a high level of revenue growth rate. In our study, we used our sample of 333 companies (6.7% out of 5,000 'fastest-growing' companies) which reached 15% of the compound annual growth rate in the last three years with more than USD 100 million. It shows that sustaining 'high-growth' above a certain firm size is difficult. The study focuses on firms with annual revenue of more than $100 billion (approximately 120 billion KRW) from the 'Inc. 2020 fast-growing companies 5,000' list. The companies have been categorized into 1) Fast-growing companies (revenue CAGR 15%~40% between 2016 and 2019), 2) Hyper-growing companies (40%~99.9%), and 3) Super-growing (100% or more) with in-depth analysis of each group's characteristics. Also, the relationship between the revenue growth rate, individual company's strategy choice (market orientation, generic strategy, growth strategy, pioneer strategy), industry/market environment, and firm age is investigated with a quantitative approach. Through conducting the study, it aims to provide a reference to the 'Hyper-Growing Model' that combines the paths and factors of growth strategies. For policymakers, our study intends to provide a reference to which factors or environmental variables should be considered for 'optimal effective combinations' to promote firms' growth.

키워드

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