• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-141
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• 2024

This study is conducted to review issues related to the use of the Simple Agreement for Future Equity(SAFE), which has been introduced as one of the venture investment methods in Korea since 2020, and to suggest policy implications for facilitating the utilization of this investment method. With the recent rapid decline in venture investment, private venture investment associations little use the SAFE in recent years. However, after adopting the SAFE, Korean's SAFE have been utilized mainly by policy financial institutions, and it is evaluated that the system has been revitalized to some extent, with some private venture investment associations also utilizing the SAFE. The results of comparing the SAFE with other equity investment contracts, the additional risk rate related to the failure of follow-up investment is estimated to be approximately 1.8%p. This shows that the additional risk is not greater than the advantages of the SAFE. In other words, it can be judged at a level where it is possible to offset advantages of the SAFE that investors must bear with the additional risks, which shows that there are less burden in terms of using the SAFE. In light of the fact that the venture investment ecosystem can become more active as various venture investment methods are developed and utilized, it is necessary to actively utilize the SAFE method to support start-up companies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.63-79
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• 2024

The startup ecosystem is experiencing a paradigm shift in founding due to the acceleration of digital transformation, online platform companies have grown significantly into unicorns, but the lack of differentiated approaches and strategic support for deep tech startups has led to the inactivity of the startup ecosystem. is lacking. Therefore, in this study, we proposed ways to develop domestic startup development policies, focusing on the US system, which is an advanced example overseas. Focusing on the definition and characteristics of deep tech startups, current investment status, success stories, support policies, etc., we comprehensively analyzed domestic and international literature and derived suggestions. In particular, he proposed specific ways to improve support policies for domestic deep tech startups and presented milestones for their development. Currently, the United States is significantly strengthening the role of the government in supporting deep tech startups. The US government provides direct financial support to deep tech startups, including detergent support and infrastructure support. It has also established policies to foster deep tech startups, established related institutions, and systematized support. It is worth noting that US universities play a core role in nurturing deep tech startups. Leading universities in the United States operate deep tech startup discovery and development programs, providing research and development infrastructure and technology. It also works with companies to provide co-investment and commercialization support for deep tech startups. As a result, the growth of domestic deep tech startups requires the cooperation of diverse entities such as the government, universities, companies, and private investors. The government should strengthen policy support, and universities and businesses should work together to support R&D and commercialization capabilities. Furthermore, private investors must stimulate investment in deep tech startups. Through such efforts, deep tech startups are expected to grow and Korea's innovation ecosystem will be revitalized.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.95-128
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• 2018

Since mid and late 2000s, the smartphones has been widely diffused and Korea ranked first in global smartphone market in 2011 thanks to its rapid adoption of Android operating system, technology capability accumulated in featurephone development, vertical integration on smartphone production and premium positioning. However, Korea fell behind because of the rise of another latecomer, China, in four years (2015) after it recorded the top position globally. How did the leadership change occurred in the smartphone industry so rapidly? In order to answer the question, we investigated three favorable windows of opportunity for the rise of China, which are technological, demand, and institutional, and the strategic responses of Chinese firms as well as the rigidity and complacency with the past success of Korean firms. Our findings contribute to the extension of 'catch-up cycle' theory as well as provide in-depth insights for strategies and policies settings to overcome the recent rise of China in information and communication technology sector for Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.370-379
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• 2018

The Korean government announced plans for the International Science Business Belt as a spatial area for promoting the linkage between scientific knowledge and commercialization in 2009. R&D and entrepreneurial activities are essential for the success of the International Science Business Belt. In particular, prioritizing the types of businesses is critical at the cluster establishment stage in that this largely affects the features and development of clusters comprising the International Science Business Belt. This research aims to predict the entry and growth of firms that specialize in four industrial clusters, including Big Science Cluster, Frontier Cluster, ICT Cluster, and Bio-Healthcare Cluster. For this purpose, we employ the Swann & Prevezer's industrial clustering model to identify sectors that affect the establishment and growth of industrial clusters in the International Science Business Belt, focusing on ICT, Bio-Healthcare and Frontier clusters. Data was collected from the 2014 Korean Innovation Survey (KIS) and University Alimi for the ICT cluster, 2014 National Bio Industry Survey and University Alimi for the Bio-Healthcare Cluster, and the 2015 National Nano Convergent Industry Survey and Annual Report of Nano Technology for the Frontier cluster. Empirical results show that the ICT service sector, bio process/equipment sector, and Nano electronic sector promote clustering in other sectors. Based on the analysis results, we discuss several policy implications and strategies that can attract relevant firms for the development of industrial clusters.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.111-120
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• 2020

Remarkable scientific and technological achievements are mainly shown in the 'super-convergence' or 'convergence of convergence' among cross- disciplinary fields, and advanced countries are promoting the 'high-risk, high-return research' ecosystem. Google LLC is carrying out numerous new challenges in terms of a non-failure perspective. Innovative research by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has produced such breakthroughs as the Internet, GPS, semiconductors, the computer mouse, autonomous vehicles, and drones. China is pioneering a 'Moon Village' and planning the world's largest nuclear fusion energy and ultra-large particle accelerator project. Japan has also launched 'the moonshot technology development research system' to promote disruptive innovation. In Korea, the government is preparing a new research program to tackle the global scientific challenges. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the reasonable geoscientific challenges to be addressed and to conduct a preliminary study on these topics. For this purpose, it is necessary to conduct long-term creative research projects centered on young researchers, select outstanding principal investigators, extract innovative topics without prior research or reference, simplify research proposal procedures, innovate the selection solely based on key ideas, and evaluate results by collective intelligence in the form of conferences.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.89-98
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• 2017

The dynamic entrepreneurial activities of small businesses or individual entrepreneurs seeking to enter the global market based on innovative ideas and challenging spirit in the modern society, which is trending in entrepreneurial capitalism according to the times, Leading to new growth engines. In order to promote the establishment of universities in Korea, the government has been working on 'Five-Year Plan for University Entrepreneurship Education(2013-2017)', 'Efficiency of Government Start-up Support in 2015', and 'Five-Year Basic Plan for Activation of Industry-University Cooperation(2016-2020)'. However, there are still practical limitations in spite of the efforts made by universities and research institutes to revitalize start-ups. As a way to overcome these limitations, this study aims to systematize the entrepreneurship education of the university, and examines the role of changing universities and theory of clusters and the entrepreneurship education. In addition, we will look at the factors of creative university culture centering on the representative cases of the Innovation University in US, and present a conceptual framework for cluster-based entrepreneurship education for the purpose of 'successful entrepreneurship' which is different from 'start-up success'. The conceptual framework of cluster-based entrepreneurship education is based on the establishment of 'Integrated Entrepreneurship Education Platform' to revitalize start-ups centered on university technology. At the same time, this framework focuses on the three factors of talent, technology, and culture based on the relevant theories and examples, and emphasizes the clustering of entrepreneurial resources, entrepreneurial policies and leadership that should be involved in entrepreneurship education.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.522-540
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• 2012

The main aim of the paper is to identify the position or status of Korean economic geography in changing global economic geography by reviewing papers published in Korean geographical journals since the mid-1950s. Since the late 20th century as economic geography has developed significantly with the introduction of new research issues, methodologies, and theory and concepts, economic geography in Korea also has gone through rapid development in terms of both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The paper attempts to analyze trends in Korean economic geography by reviewing agricultural, industrial, commercial geographies, and others since the mid-1950s. The review of economic geography in Korea would be based on four periods classified by research issues and approaches; foundation (~1950s), positioning (1960s and 1970s), jump and rush (1980s and mid-1990s), and transitional period (late 1990s~). Agricultural geography in Korea has decreased due to increases of the interests in industrial geography since the 1980s. In particular, since the late 1990s industrial geography has undergone a significant transition in accordance with the emergence of new theories of institutional perspectives, centering around issues on value chains, innovative cluster, cooperative and competitive networks, foreign direct investment, flexible specialization and venture ecology. Along with this, there has been changes in the interest of commercial geography in Korea from researches on periodical markets, the structure of store formats, and distributions by commodity, to researches on producer services and retailer's locational behaviors and commercial supremacy according to the emergence of new store formats. Since the late 1990s, many researches and discussions associated with the new economic geography began to emerge in Korea. Various research issues are focused on analyzing changes of local, regional and global economic spaces and their processes in relation to institutional perspectives, knowledge and innovation, production chain and innovative networks, industrial clusters and RIS, and geographies of service. Although economic geography in Korea has developed significantly both in quantitative and qualitative perspectives, we pointed out that it has still limited in some specific scope and issues. Therefore, it is likely to imply that its scope and issues should be diversified with new perspectives and approaches.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.71-94
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• 2020

Korea's innovation cluster policy has been implemented since 2005 with the goal of balanced regional development. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the sustainability of innovative cluster tenants by using Pangyo Techno Valley as an example. Pangyo Techno Valley was established under the leadership of the local government (Gyeonggi-do) rather than the central government and it is called "Silicon Valley of Korea" and "Asia Silicon Valley" and is becoming more representative. The growing number of companies in Pangyo Techno Valley decreased in 2017 compared to 2016. This is because Pangyo Techno Valley's business ecosystem will change from 2019. In this paper, quantitative and qualitative studies were conducted to investigate the influencing factors. Quantitative research was conducted based on the survey and qualitative research was applied through interviews. The quantitative research examined the factors affecting the sustainability of Pangyo Techno Valley, and the qualitative research examined the specific reasons and additional factors for the quantitative research results. The quantitative results showed that factors affecting sustainability in terms of changes in corporate internal conditions, human and physical infrastructure, cooperation and synergy, and occupancy patterns. The specific reason for the impact appeared in the qualitative research process. The support category of local governments did not show any significant factors in quantitative research. In addition, qualitative research suggested 'Good image of Pangyo Techno Valley' as the category that has the greatest impact on sustainability. It is shown that companies are passive and expect the role of local governments in activating cooperation network in Pangyo Techno Valley. In this paper, based on the results of the study, Pangyo Techno Valley is presented with a realistic plan based on real estate issues and an ideal plan with a long-term perspective.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.29-63
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of changes in regional science and technology policies in Korea and to seek future development directions. In Korea, regional science and technology policies have been implemented since the introduction of the local autonomy system. Since then, it has been implemented in earnest with the establishment of a central government-level plan. The regional science and technology policies have been developed to this day by interacting with national science and technology policies and regional development policies. Nevertheless, due to the path dependence and lock-in effect in the accumulated process, the regional science and technology policies are still subordinate to central government policies. Thus, the establishment of an independent ecosystem for local science and technology is still insufficient. Furthermore, the gap between regions is deepening, such as the growing of aging population, population decline due to low birth rates, job losses due to the recession of local key industry, and the concentration of the youth population in the metropolitan area. The transformation path such as digital transformation and carbon neutrality paradigm is expected to further widen regional disparities. In order to address a comprehensive problem, the implementing system of regional science and technology policies need to be newly established. A framework for reinvention of regional science and technology policy needed in the era of grand societal challenges have to be developed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.75-91
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• 2024

Recently, global business environment is changing dramatically along with the acceleration of technological innovation amid the war, climatic change, and geopolitical instability. Accordingly, it is difficult to predict or plan for the future as the volatility, complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty of the industrial ecosystem continue to increase. Therefore, organizations are undergoing inevitable restructuring in accordance with their survival strategy, for instance, removing marginal businesses or firing. Accordingly, office workers are seeking a startup as an alternative for their continuous economic activity amid rising anxiety factors that make them think they would lose their jobs unintentionally. Here, this study is aimed to verify through what paths office workers' self-determination influences the process of converting to a startup. For this study, an online survey was carried out, and 310 respondents' valid data were analyzed through SPSS and AMOS. To sum up the results, first, office workers' self-determination did not have significant effects on entrepreneurial intention. However, it was confirmed that self-determination had positive (+) effects on innovativeness and perception of the startup support system. This result shows that their psychology works to prepare step by step by accumulating innovative experiences and increasing perception of the startup support system from a long-term life path perspective rather than challenging startups right way. Second, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. Also, perception of the startup support system had positive (+) effects on entrepreneurial intention. This implies that when considering startups, they are highly aware of the government's various startup support systems. Third, innovativeness is found to have positive (+) effects on perception of the startup support system. It is judged that perception of the startup support system is valid for prospective founders to exhibit their innovativeness and realize new ideas. Fourth, it was confirmed that innovativeness and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between self-determination and entrepreneurial intention, and perception of the startup support system mediated correlation between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention, which shows that it is a crucial factor in entrepreneurial intention. Although previous studies related to startups deal with students mostly, this study targets office workers who form a great part in economic activities, which makes it academically valuable in terms of being differentiated from others and extending the scope of research. Also, when we consider the fact that the motivation for self-determination alone fails to stimulate entrepreneurial intention and the complete mediation of innovativeness and the startup support system, it has great implications in practical aspects such as the government's human and material support systems. In the selection and analysis of samples, this study exhibits a limitation that the problem of common method bias is not completely resolved. Also, additional definitive research is needed on whether entrepreneurial intention is formed and converted into startup behavior. Academically and practically, this study deals with the relationship between humans' psychological motives and startups which has not been handled sufficiently in previous studies. The conversion of office workers to startups is expected to have effects on individuals' economic stability and the state's job creation; therefore, it needs to be investigated continuously for its great value.