• Korean small business review
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.165-186
• /
• 2021

Startups are undergoing a change throughout the growth process of startups that appear in existing studies as they move away from the existing B2B or B2C frame and expand their target customer groups to O2O, C2C. In this regard, a new type of startup known as unicorns, a unicorn which has grown rapidly in a short period of time, is being created by successfully attracting government support and external investment in recognition of the potential value of the startup. This study examined the relationship between investment attraction and growth after founding for five representative unicorns in the U.S. and Korea. As a result, it was found that private investment in Korea is passive and defensive, and is attracted after the Series A stage, compared to the U.S., where the growth potential of the startup ecosystem is positively evaluated. In addition, it found that government's support policy throughout the startup's growth process is an abstract and comprehensive policy focusing on initial funding for startups. Therefore, it was suggested that the scope of government policies should be expanded to forster startups as unicorns, and that it is necessary to establish and implement differentiated support policies for each growth of the scale-up of startups. This study is significant in that it presented the criteria for the growth stage and support of startups as well as policy support for scale-up through practical case analysis of unicorns.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.19-31
• /
• 2022

Currently, the role of public accelerators in the domestic accelerator market is gradually expanding. Accordingly, in order to establish relevant policies properly, it is necessary to check the effect and validity of public accelerators' investment. However, there is no quantitative research conducted on domestic accelerators, using their financial data, as domestic accelerators have a short history and quantitative data on them are not disclosed. Therefore, this study conducted an empirical analysis with financial data of the startups that received equity investments from public accelerators to confirm the effect of public accelerators'investment in startups. A regression analysis was conducted with financial data from 112 startups that acquired investments from public accelerators in the period of 2016~2020. And the findings are as follows: First, it was found that the initial investment of public accelerators had an effect on the growth and profitability of startups. Specifically, it was confirmed that the initial investment of public accelerators had a positive (+) effect on sales growth rates and total asset growth rates, which are growth indicators. Second, it was found that the joint investment of public accelerators had a significant positive (+) effect on profit margin, an indicator of profitability, rather than on growth. Therefore, it is deemed that it will be a great force for growth if investment in the early-stage startups that showed significant investment results in this study is continuously expanded in combination with support projects, which are a strength of public accelerators. Since this study has confirmed the investment effect of public accelerators, it is deemed necessary to actively promote policies that direct public accelerators' projects toward improving the performance of startups through joint investment with the private sector and supplementing private accelerators' deficiencies.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.285-308
• /
• 2020

This paper analyzes the factors which affect University professors and students on their startup activities, such as (a) University factors: their industrial cooperation organization and systems, their resources for startup support, their knowledge assets, and (b) socioeconomic characteristics in which Universities are located. We used the data and information from the University Information System and the National Statistical Office Publication to analyze 157 4-year Universities in Korea who uploaded their startup-related information on the system. Our analysis shows that Universities' systems, such as the term for Professors' leave of absence for startup activities, and their amount of knowledge assets affect the number of Professor startups significantly positively, while there is no significant effect on their performance, in terms of sales, from those factors, except for the amount of patents that the University has. In the meantime, the number of practical startup courses, the number of startup clubs, and the number of professor startups in the University affect the number of student startups, while the size of industrial cooperation body, the amount of knowledge asset, the area's socioeconomic characteristics didn't affect their performance. The result implies that we need to take different approaches to boost University professor startups and their student startups: better system and more knowledge for the former, more practical courses and programs for the latter. Further study is needed to get a more robust result because this analysis used only one year data, and personal trait data was not included in the analysis. A panel data analysis for several years is recommended for further research.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.187-219
• /
• 2021

Startup accelerators, a new type of investment entity, have emerged as a way to solve the difficulties of early startups and existing investment methods with high risk. With the visible performances of these startup accelerators on the success of startups, medium and large accelerator companies have emerged, along with the increasing size of seed money they invest in. In addition, differences between small and medium&large accelerator companies are emerging. Therefore, startups need informations on what factors to prepare for attracting startup accelerators' investment. Accelerators also need determinant criteria to select startups as the amount of investment grows. However, the study on this subject is not currently being conducted. Therefore, we conducted the study through dividing the average amount of seed money into small and medium & large-sized investment groups and examined the differences in major investment determinants, investment purposes, and major accelerating programs. As the results of this study, small investment groups could be subdivided into 'consulting-oriented accelerators' and medium- and large-sized investment groups into 'investment-oriented accelerators'. In addition, major services and investment purposes and investment decision criteria vary depending on the size of the investment. I think these findings will be good standards for accelerator companies, startups in need of their help, and follow-up researchers.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.43-58
• /
• 2021

This study analyzes the entrepreneurship policies of the previous Korean administrations from the perspective of the Policy Paradigm by Hall(1993). A total of 195 newspaper articles and 202 government documents were examined to identify policy paradigm shifts through an analysis of policy objectives, policy instruments, and changing quality of policy instruments by each administration. The first paradigm was built during the 5th and 6th Republic, where 'Support for Small and Medium Enterprise Establishment Act' was enacted in 1986 to promote and support start-ups in the manufacturing sector. Next is the so-called 'people's government' period where 'Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of Venture Businesses' was enacted to tackle the challenges posed during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. A new policy goal was set to promote and nurture venture companies seeking subsequent means to achieve it. The third paradigm shift took place during President Moon's administration in order to effectively respond to the issues stemming from the fourth industrial revolution and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the overall revision of the 'Support for Small and Medium Enterprise Establishment Act', the scope of startups were expanded, new industries and technology startups were supported and promoted, and venture investment-related laws were streamlined. In addition, the Small and Medium Business Administration was promoted as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, enabling them to take initiative in implementing startup policies. Particularly, this study focuses on examining the low survival rate of startup companies and the revitalization of private investment as rising policy issues for recent startups, and suggests the improvement direction due to startup policy paradigm shift.

• Korean small business review
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.135-165
• /
• 2020

This study aimed to examine relationships between founders' entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior, team boundary spanning, and perceived performance in early-stage startups. The following results were recorded: (i) the indirect effects of entrepreneurial leadership on perceived performance via team learning behavior were statistically significant (β=.309, p<.05). (ii) relationships between team learning behavior and perceived performance were strengthened by team boundary spanning behavior (β=.259, p<.05). In this study, three practical implications are provided as follows: (i) startups need to seek team learning readiness and external learning stimulus to facilitate generative and transformative team learning; (ii) accelerators need to develop an entrepreneurial leadership program for founders; and (iii) startups need to explore external information by interacting with investors, R&D institutions, and other startups to strengthen the impact of team learning behavior on performance. Furthermore, two directions for future research are suggested as follows: (i) future researchers need to test causal relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and team learning behavior based on a newly designed time-series measurement plan; (ii) the actual effects of entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior and team boundary spanning on financial performance need to be tested two or three years later when the financial performance of early-stage startups usually becomes evident.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2019

As a way to find new and innovative technologies, many companies have invested in and acquired skilled startups. Because startups are usually small in size and have a small history of past business experience, there are many risks involved in acquiring them as they have limited technical skills and business feasibility verification methods. Thus, venture capital plays an important role in discovering and investing competitive startups. While Independent Venture Capital generally values financial returns, Corporate Venture Capital, which plays investment roles in the firm, values business synergies with the parent company from a strategic perspective. In an industry sector where development of technology is rapid and whether new technology is held determines a company's competitiveness, existing companies incorporate startups with innovative technologies into their investment portfolios, collaborate together, and take over for comprehensive cooperation. In addition, new investments and acquisitions are carried out through the management of portfolio companies to obtain and utilize industry information. In this paper, major U.S. companies listed in the U.S. verified their investment activities through corporate venture capital and their impact on parent companies and startups through regression, while the parent company's acquisition performance was analyzed through an event study based on a stock price analysis. The criteria for startup were defined as companies with less than 12 years of experience, and the analysis showed that the parent companies with corporate venture capital with a larger number of investments actively take over startups. In addition, increasing corporate venture capital's financial investment activities shows a negative impact on the parent companies' acquisition activities, and the acquisition performance increased when the parent companies took over startups in its portfolio.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.53-63
• /
• 2017

With increasing the importance of venture startup in the national economy, a trend shows that the government's policy support for venture startup is not only strengthened, but also entrepreneurial enthusiasm is increasing. In order for this trend to continue as an ongoing phenomenon, not a temporary phenomenon, venture startups should continue to grow with survival competitiveness. In this respect, there is a time when it is necessary to study the factors affecting the success of venture startups more than ever. There is a limit to seeing main factors, which affect the entry into the growth stage with survival competitiveness for the success of venture startups, as only 'entrepreneur capacity' and 'differentiation strategy' claimed by existing previous studies. As a more fundamental factor, entrepreneurial behavior is important in terms of opportunity discovery and opportunity utilization, but research into this falls short of expectations. This study is intended to look into success factors of venture startup. To achieve this, a survey was empirically carried out to CEOs in 100 small and medium venture startups through AHP analysis. The results are as follows. As stated above, entrepreneurship of success factors in venture startups is considered most critical, followed by innovation, economics, and technology. And 'entrepreneur's competency', 'positive entrepreneurial motivation', 'creative technology utilization', and 'continuous investment in technical development' are considered most critical for 'entrepreneurship', 'innovation', 'technology', and 'economics' as sub-factors, respectively. Consequently, entrepreneur's entrepreneurship that has been required in general startups is a critical factor to be also in common required in venture startups. This means that they can secure the competitiveness of venture startup along with continuous investment support in business startup with a positive mindset and their own technological competence as innovators to overcome the risk and uncertainty of business startup as entrepreneurship that marks the start of a new enterprise.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.85-106
• /
• 2023

This study reviewed and derived the success factors of overseas agricultural startups and studied their integrated research model. Agricultural startups and general startups have in common that poor resources and infrastructure exist from a resource-based perspective after startup, but a differentiated approach from general startups is required due to the nature of the primary industry of agriculture. In this study, we approach the company internal factors (human resources/vision/distribution network capacity/capital capacity/cultivated crops/physical resources/farming technology, etc.) and external factors (agricultural infrastructure/laws/regulations/relationship with surrounding society, etc.) We tried to build a research model that can be integrated by focusing on various existing research models, success factors, and entrepreneurship. Through this, it is intended to present an integrated model that is practically helpful to business performance to entrepreneurs, business-related persons, and researchers who need an integrated understanding of agricultural startups at home and abroad. made for purpose In this paper, a standard model was established through three types (existing agricultural startup, small and medium-sized business startup, multinational company, and comprehensive approach) according to size and characteristics for modeling agricultural startup success factors. Through this, a total of 9 success factors (agricultural management, external environment, manager/founder characteristics, corporate identity, business management, organizational culture, infrastructure, commercialization capability, and sustainable growth) were derived. The implication of this study is that the success factors of agricultural startups were comprehensively presented based on 'entrepreneurship' for various domestic and foreign agricultural startup cases. By confirming the systematic categorization, a standard model for future agricultural startup success factors was presented, and as a result, a foundation was presented for systematic research and practical effectiveness of related research in the future.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.9 no.9
• /
• pp.25-33
• /
• 2018

Purpose - In this study, we consider and examine relationships between reasons for business switch or liquidation (BSL), and the demographics of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea. The related five variables are occupations, administrative districts, age of employer, firm age and foundation motivation. In addition, eleven levels in association with reasons for BSL visualize the corresponding demographics by measuring their similarity on the dimensional planes assuming that the association exists between variables under consideration. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is done by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2016 and examines 20,307 small and medium enterprises. For examining the distinct relationships among variables under consideration, both chi-squared test and correspondence analysis as main statistical tools are used. Results - The results show that among levels of reasons for BSL the three levels -weakening profitability, poor sales and economic depression- are main ones for the five demographics variables mentioned above, and we can obtain the detailed associations between attributes of corresponding variables by inspecting the two dimensional plane. Conclusions - This study suggests reasons for BSL are closely associated with the five different demographics variables - Administrative districts, Firm age, Occupations, Age of employer and Foundation motivation-by looking over results.