• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.193-206
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• 2023

In a workplace, workers exhaust their resources due to workplace adversity or acquire resources through job-related passion. The purpose of this study is to verify the factors that affect the conversion of workers to entrepreneurs and through what paths entrepreneurial intention is generated. To this end, the effects of workplace adversity and job-related passion on entrepreneurial intention were explored with workers in Korea. Also, by empirically analyzing the effects of workplace adversity and job-related passion on entrepreneurial intention through the mediation of job-related creativity, this author attempted to derive the factors and implications associated with the conversion of workers to entrepreneurs. Analyzing 333 workers' data acquired through online surveys with the statistical packages of SPSS and AMOS, this study has gained the following results. First, workplace adversity is found to have positive(+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. This implies that workplace adversity that is negatively regarded is rather a crucial variable that increases entrepreneurial intention. Second, workplace adversity has positive(+) effects on job-related creativity. It means that job-related creativity is an effective factor to overcome workplace adversity. Third, job-related passion is found to have positive(+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. The passion to concentrate on the resources secured is an important factor to elevate entrepreneurial intention. Fourth, job-related passion is verified to have positive(+) effects on job-related creativity. It implies that creative methods can be effective in achieving the goal. Fifth, job-related creativity is found to have positive(+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. Creativity is an intention or action that precedes starting up a business, and it is judged that high job-related creativity reflects high expectation about the possibility of success in starting up a business. Sixth, job-related creativity is found to have mediating effects in correlation between workplace adversity and entrepreneurial intention. Seventh, job-related creativity is found to have mediating effects in correlation between job-related passion and entrepreneurial intention. This means that job-related creativity is an effective factor to alleviate the adversity of workers and increase job-related passion in the process of becoming entrepreneurs. Academically, there were few previous studies related to the adversity of workers in Korea. As this study targets office workers, it can be said that it is a differentiated study extending the range of subjects. Also, practically, it has been learned that negative workplace adversity, too, is an important variable that affect entrepreneurial intention positively. This is practically meaningful in terms of office workers' career management because even in adverse situations that are negative, starting up a business through work experiences may work as an alternative.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.37-50
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• 2023

Venture capital invests the necessary capital and supports management and technology in promising small and medium-sized venture companies in the early stages of start-up with promising technology and excellent manpower. It plays a role as a key player in the venture ecosystem that realizes profits by collecting the investment through various means after growth. Venture capital's job is to recruit various investors(LPs) to invest in small and medium-sized venture companies with growth potential through the formation of venture investment funds, and to collect investment as companies grow, distribute and reinvest. The main tasks of venture capitalists, which play the most important role in venture investment, are finding promising companies, corporate analysis and evaluation, investment screening, follow-up management, and investment recovery. Venture capital's success indicators are fund formation and return on investment, and venture capitalists are rewarded with annual salary, performance-based incentive, and promotion with work performance such as investment, exit, and fund formation. Compared to the recent rapidly growing venture investment market, investment manpower is insufficient, and venture capital is making great efforts to foster manpower and establish infrastructure and systems for long-term service, but research has been conducted mainly from a quantitative perspective. Accordingly, this study aims to empirically analyzed the impact of investment experience, delegation of authority, job fit, and peer relationships on fund formation and return on investment according to the characteristics of the venture capital industry. The results of these empirical studies suggested that future venture capital needs a job environment and manpower operation strategy so that venture capitalists with high job fit and investment experience can work for a long time.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2023

Due to imbalances in supply and demand within the labor market, start-ups have emerged as crucial players in the generation of high-quality employment opportunities, particularly in stagnant job markets. In response to this trend, governments are allocating substantial financial and human resources to initiatives that support start-up development. This has led to an increasing rate of engagement in start-up ventures across diverse age groups, not limited to younger individuals. Start-ups are enterprises focused on the commercialization of innovative ideas with the aim of achieving profitability in the marketplace. Research concerning the successful market integration of new products and the attainment of sustainable growth is pivotal. Such research is instrumental not only for the success of start-ups but also for realizing the broader social functions and contributions that these enterprises can offer. Previous research has often examined new product market-entry strategies, often referred to as new product marketing, particularly for large companies and SMEs. However, there is a gap in studies focusing on prototype marketing strategies specific to start-ups. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of Pre-announcing marketing strategies on the market attention garnered by start-ups with low recognition and limited infrastructure, and how such attention contributes to their sustainable growth. Specifically, the study aims to uncover the causal relationship between information attributes like relevance, vividness, and novelty in building customer relationships, and their impact on purchase intentions influenced by performance expectations and hedonic motivations. In terms of Pre-announcing information attributes, relevance, vividness, and novelty positively influence performance expectations and hedonic motivations as outlined in the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2). These factors, in turn, positively impact the purchase intention for pre-announced new products from start-ups. These findings are expected to provide both theory and practical insights into the factors influencing market entry through the use of Pre-announcing marketing strategies for start-up new products.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.17-32
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• 2023

The entrepreneurial activities of college students play a significant role in modern economic and social development, particularly as a solution to the changing economic landscape and youth unemployment issues. Introducing innovative ideas and technologies into the market through entrepreneurship can contribute to sustainable economic growth and social value. Additionally, the entrepreneurial intentions of college students are shaped by various factors, making it crucial to deeply understand and appropriately support these elements. To this end, this study systematically explores the importance and impact of role models through a multiple serial mediation analysis. Through a survey of 300 college students, the study analyzed how two psychological variables, growth mindset and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, mediate the influence of role models on entrepreneurial intentions. The presence and success stories of role models were found to enhance the growth mindset of college students, which in turn boosts their entrepreneurial self-efficacy and ultimately strengthens their entrepreneurial intentions. The analysis revealed that exposure to role models significantly influences the formation of a growth mindset among college students. This mindset fosters a positive attitude towards viewing challenges and failures in entrepreneurship as learning opportunities. Such a mindset further enhances entrepreneurial self-efficacy, thereby strengthening the intention to engage in entrepreneurial activities. This research offers insights by integrating various theories, such as mindset theory and social learning theory, to deeply understand the complex process of forming entrepreneurial intentions. Practically, this study provides important guidelines for the design and implementation of college entrepreneurship education. Utilizing role models can significantly enhance students' entrepreneurial intentions, and educational programs can strengthen students' growth mindset and entrepreneurial self-efficacy by sharing entrepreneurial experiences and knowledge through role models. In conclusion, this study provides a systematic and empirical analysis of the various factors and their complex interactions that impact the entrepreneurial intentions of college students. It confirms that psychological factors like growth mindset and entrepreneurial self-efficacy play a significant role in shaping entrepreneurial intentions, beyond mere information or technical education. This research emphasizes that these psychological factors should be comprehensively considered when developing and implementing policies and programs related to college entrepreneurship education.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.33-44
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• 2023

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an important variable that explains people's attitudes and behaviors toward start-ups. In this study, we focused on individual psychological characteristics variables such as luck in belief and positive cognitive bias that affect entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Among these variables, we paid particular attention to luck in belief. The belief that business success depends on luck is widespread, but scientific verification about it has not been much. The reason for the academic indifference is that luck is a kind of superstition, related to precognition or extrasensory perception, and randomly caused by the external environment. The study of luck began in earnest as a measure to measure luck as an individual characteristic variable such as personality was developed. The purpose of this study is to examine the existing studies on luck in belief and to examine the effect of this luck in belief on positive cognitive bias and entrepreneurial self-efficacy through empirical analysis. For empirical analysis, this study conducted an on-line survey of 400 ordinary people and conducted a structural equation model analysis using AMOS 21.0 to verify the hypothesis. As a result of hypothesis testing, all hypotheses that luck in belief would have a positive effect on positive cognitive bias(self-enhancement bias, illusion of control bias, unrealism optimistic bias) were adopted. The hypothesis that positive cognitive bias(self-enhancement bias, illusion of control bias, unrealistic optimism bias) will have a positive effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy was also adopted. Additional analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of positive cognitive bias in the relationship between luck in belief and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which showed that 'luck in belief→positive cognitive bias →entrepreneurial self-efficacy' were statistically significant. Through this, we confirmed the mediating effect of positive cognitive bias in the relationship between luck in belief and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In the conclusion, the implications and limitations of the study were presented based on the results of this study.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.251-265
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• 2022

According to the 2019 statistics of the National Statistical Office, the population of old people over 65 is 7.69 million which consists of 14.9% of total population in Korea, and the world's fastest compressed-aging is being processed. Employees engaged in financial business as representative high-wage workers tend to choose voluntary retirement regardless of their business types, and rarely get a new job or establish their own business successfully. This study analyzes the effects of retirement expectations, social supports, and entrepreneurial intention for employees engaged in financial business, and the differences by individual characteristics on the preparation for their old age. The subjects include 280 people working at Seoul metropolitan and Daegu area. The data were analyzed with the SPSS Win Ver. 18.0 for frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, etc. and the results of the study are as follows. First, the result of analyzing the effect of retirement expectations of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for old age shows that the retirement expectations of the people who consider retirement is a new start meaningfully affect the financial and physical preparations for old age. Second, it is shown that family relations for employees engaged in financial business meaningfully affect the financial preparation, and family relations and friendship relations meaningfully affect the emotional and social preparations, despite social supports do not relevantly affect the financial preparation for old age. Third, it is also shown that the entrepreneurial intention of employees engaged in financial business does not relevantly affect the financial and physical preparations, but meaningfully affects the emotional and social preparations for old age. Fourth, the result of analyzing the effect of the individual characteristics of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for their old age shows that age, marital status, and job grade do not relevantly affect, but the experience of entrepreneurship education more affects the preparation for old age than no-experience.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.121-137
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to present the necessary success factors and strategies for high-tech social ventures and stakeholders in the related ecosystem by empirically identifying factors that affect their sustainable performance. Based on prior research, the dimensions of three performance factors were presented: core technology competency, core business competency, and social mission orientation. Then, such sub-dimensions such as technology innovation orientation, R&D capability, business model, customer orientation, social network, and social mission pursuit were derived. For empirical analysis, a survey was conducted on domestic high-tech social ventures, and the significance of the hypothesis was tested through PLS-structural equation analysis of the collected 243 valid data. As a result, it was found that the technology innovation orientation was embedded as an abstract organizational and cultural characteristic in the high-tech social venture, which is a research sample, and thus did not significantly affect the dependent variable. In other words, aiming for the latest cutting-edge technology alone cannot affect performance, and it is a result of proving the need for substantial influencing factors that can strengthen it. On the other hand, the business model had a significant effect only on social performance, which is presumed to be the limitation of measurement tools developed for social enterprises, and the results of additional multi-group analysis to determine the cause also supported the basis for this estimation. Excluding the previous two performance factors, R&D competency, customer orientation, social network, and social mission pursuit were all found to have a significant positive (+) effect on social and economic performance. This study laid a foundation for related research by identifying high-tech social ventures emerging in the ecosystem of a social economy and expanded empirical research models related to the performance of existing social enterprises and social ventures. However, in the research method or process, there were limitations such as factor derivation or verification for balance of dual performance, subjective measurement method, and sample representativeness. It is expected that more in-depth follow-up studies will continue by supplementing future limitations and designing improved research models.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

Although start-up is a key national strategy to increase national competitiveness and create employment, the survival rate of start-ups has not improved significantly. This is an important reason for the inability to provide timely and appropriate support to startups, which are in the early stages of start-up, due to the unique limitations of existing start-up support institutions and investors. The relatively recent accelerator is attracting attention as a subject of solving the above problems through professional incubation and investment. However, there are only a few empirical studies on investment determinants that affect the survival and success of accelerators, and there is a lack of theoretical evidence. Accordingly, in previous studies, 12 investment determinants were derived from a static, strategic, and dynamic perspective as accelerator investment determinants based on a business model innovation framework. This study subdivided the accelerator investment determinants derived through previous studies into 21 and analyzed the importance and priority of each factor using AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) analysis technique for domestic accelerator investment experts. As a result of the analysis, the top factors of importance of accelerator investment determinants were in the order of 'human resources', 'customer and market', 'intellectual resources', and 'entrepreneur's ability to realize opportunities'. It can be seen that the accelerator considers the core competencies of startups to implement solutions as the most important factor when making startup investment decisions. It was also confirmed that accelerators are strategic to create a clear value proposition and differentiated market position based on the core competitiveness of startups, and that the core value delivery method prefers a market-oriented business model and recognizes entrepreneurs's innovation capability is an important factor to realize a business model with limited resources in a rapidly changing market. This study is of academic significance in that it analyzes the importance and priority of accelerator investment determinants through demonstration as a follow-up study on accelerator investment determinants derived based on business model innovation theory that reflects the nature, goals, and major activities of accelerator investment. In addition, it is of practical value as it contributes to revitalizing the domestic startup investment ecosystem by providing accelerators with theoretical grounds for investment decisions and specific information on detailed investment determinants.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.49-65
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• 2022

This study conducted an exploratory study based on in-depth interviews to understand the characteristics and capabilities of female entrepreneurs to promote women entrepreneurship. Therefore, in this study, through in-depth interviews with eight female entrepreneurs, the main contents of entrepreneurial attitudes (need for independence, development desire, favorable conditions), start-up entry rate, start-up motivation, start-up activities and constraints were analyzed. As a result, first, it was found that the entrepreneurial attitude of female entrepreneurs has a strong motivation for successful management based on a feeling of self-satisfaction, has characteristics that prioritize independence and self-actualization, and favorable conditions for starting a business are important. Second, it was found that women's individual differences from men and social structural factors had no significant effect on the entry rate of women. Third, it was found that the most important entrepreneurship motivation for women is the spirit of challenge, self-satisfaction, and the desire to balance work and family. Fourth, female entrepreneurs showed little difference in perception between male and female entrepreneurs in terms of resource access, but there was some discrimination in the network. Fifth, the main industries of female entrepreneurs are small businesses, and there is a tendency to be concentrated in industries with low profit margins and low growth and sales. Finally, it was found that barriers to women's entrepreneurship still exist. Based on the results of this study, the following implications are suggested. First, this study is differentiated in that it mainly identified the characteristics of women's experiences and social environments while starting a business and running a business. Second, in the case of female entrepreneurs, there is a need to spread a positive awareness of women entrepreneurship by arguing that the barriers to entrepreneurship unique to women are not high and can be sufficiently overcome. Lastly, although opportunistic start-ups based on women's social experience or management ability in work life are important for women's entrepreneurship, government support policies are needed to promote professional technology start-ups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.219-232
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• 2022

Empirical studies on entrepreneurial intentions have been conducted from various perspectives over the past few decades. The unemployment rate has increased as the global economy stagnates in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and entrepreneurship is emerging as an alternative to job creation. Although numerous antecedent variables have positive effects on entrepreneurial intention, this study focuses on entrepreneurial self-efficacy as an individual factor and the entrepreneur's family background as an environmental factor. This study analyzed the survey results of 300 global respondents through the online survey platform Prolific. The respondents were screened by asking a question about having had entrepreneurial education. Since the effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention have been proved in numerous domestic studies, this study aims to generalize these results by investigating global samples. The moderated mediation analysis was performed using PROCESS to verify the research hypotheses. This research investigated the effect of entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition on entrepreneurial intention via entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the moderated mediation effect of the family background of entrepreneurs. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, acquisition of entrepreneurial knowledge had a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. Second, entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediated the relationship between entrepreneurship knowledge acquisition and entrepreneurial intention. Third, the entrepreneurship family background moderated this relationship. Specifically, when the family entrepreneurship background is strong (vs. weak), the positive effect of entrepreneurial knowledge acquisition on entrepreneurial intention via entrepreneurial self-efficacy significantly increased. The implications of this study are as follows. First, in the process of preparing for a own business, entrepreneurial education is a necessary condition to improve the entrepreneurial intention. Second, the higher the level of acquisition of entrepreneurial knowledge, the more positive attitudes toward entrepreneurial intention can be induced. Third, strong family background of entrepreneurship further promotes entrepreneurship intention by increasing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In conclusion, in order to revitalize entrepreneurship, it is important to provide various entrepreneurial education programs. These educational programs will be able to improve entrepreneurial self-efficacy by providing more opportunities for students to acquire entrepreneurial knowledge, and thereby promote entrepreneurial intention. In addition, it is important to develop and provide advanced educational curriculum for those who have start-up business experiences in their families.