• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.47-59
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• 2019

Various studies have been carried out on the subject of entrepreneurship, which is required to create new businesses and organizations during the early process of startups based on innovative technologies and ideas. At the same time, the concept of organizational entrepreneurial orientation, which explains how to manage enterprises in the process of pioneering new products and markets, is drawing more and more attention for the purpose of continuously creating and maintaining a competitive edge of startups. This study focused on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance and the role of technological orientation and social capital. An empirical research was conducted on 144 different startup companies residing in startup supporting institutions. To evaluate the suitability of the research model, a PLS-based structural equation model was used. The research results are as follows: First, the entrepreneurial orientation of startups was found to have a positive effect on startup performance. Second, it was shown that entrepreneurial orientation had a positive effect on all three dimensions of social capital and technological orientation. Third, it has been shown that technological orientation and the cognitive dimension of social capital mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and startup performance. Through this, it was confirmed that entrepreneurial orientation directly affects startup performance, and it even influences the growth of startups by increasing technological superiority and social capital which is inherent in the network. Also, the research identified the need for additional research on the relationship between the strengthening of technological orientation and strategical orientation in startups. This study is expected to expand the discussion about social capital in the field of startup related research by affirming the role and importance of the cognitive system embedded in the network as well as the connectivity of networks, which has been already emphasized in previous startup related studies. Finally, the results of this study were reflected to present new practical implications.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.27-42
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• 2020

Startup accelerators have emerged as new investment entities that help early startups, which are not easy to survive continuously due to lack of funds, commercialization capabilities, and experiences. As their positive performance on early startups and the ecosystem has been proven, the number of early startups which want to receive their investment is also increasing. However, they are vaguely preparing to attract accelerators' investment because they do not have any information on what factors the accelerators consider important. In addition, researches on startup accelerators are also at an early level, so there are no remarkable prior studies on factors that decide on investment. Therefore, this study aims to help startups prepare for investment attraction by looking at what factors are important for accelerators to invest, and to provide meaningful implications to academia. In the preceding study, we derived five upper level categories, 26 lower level accelerators' investment determinants through the qualitative meta-synthesis method, secondary data analysis, observation on US accelerators and in-depth interviews. In this study, we want to derive important implications by deriving priorities of the accelerators' investment determinants. Therefore, we used AHP that are evaluated as the suitable methodology for deriving importance and priority. The analysis results show that accelerators value market-related factors most. This means that startups that are subject to investment by accelerators are early-stage startups, and many companies have not fully developed their products or services. Therefore, market-related factors that can be evaluated objectively seem to be more important than products (or services) that are still ambiguous. Next, it was found that the factors related to the internal workforce of startups are more important. Since accelerators want to develop their businesses together with start-ups and team members through mentoring, ease of collaboration with them is very important, which seems to be important. The overall priority analysis results of the 26 investment determinants show that 'customer needs' and 'founders and team members' understanding of customers and markets' (0.62) are important and high priority factors. The results also show that startup accelerators consider the customer-centered perspective very important. And among the factors related to startups, the most prominent factor was the founder's openness and execution ability. Therefore, it can be confirmed that accelerators consider the ease of collaboration with these startups very important.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.65-76
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• 2023

In the field of technology entrepreneurship and startups, the development of Artificial Intelligence(AI) has emerged as a key topic for business model innovation. As a result, venture firms are making various efforts centered on AI to secure competitiveness(Kim & Geum, 2023). The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the development of GenAI technology and the startup ecosystem by analyzing domestic news articles to identify trends in the technology startup field. Using BIG Kinds, this study examined the changes in GenAI-related news articles, major issues, and trends in Korean news articles from 1990 to August 10, 2023, focusing on the emergence of ChatGPT before and after, and visualized the relevance through network analysis and keyword visualization. The results of the study showed that the mention of GenAI gradually increased in the articles from 2017 to 2023. In particular, OpenAI's ChatGPT service based on GPT-3.5 was highlighted as a major issue, indicating the popularization of language model-based GenAI technologies such as OpenAI's DALL-E, Google's MusicLM, and VoyagerX's Vrew. This proves the usefulness of GenAI in various fields, and since the launch of ChatGPT, Korean companies have been actively developing Korean language models. Startups such as Ritten Technologies are also utilizing GenAI to expand their scope in the technology startup field. This study confirms the connection between GenAI technology and startup entrepreneurship activities, which suggests that it can support the construction of innovative business strategies, and is expected to continue to shape the development of GenAI technology and the growth of the startup ecosystem. Further research is needed to explore international trends, the utilization of various analysis methods, and the possibility of applying GenAI in the real world. These efforts are expected to contribute to the development of GenAI technology and the growth of the startup ecosystem.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.353-363
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• 2021

This study analyzed to provide information for business improvement by analyzing the management efficiency of start-up investment companies so that startup investment companies can operate efficiently and by presenting information on inefficient factors. From 2014 to 2018, 83 start-up investment companies were analyzed using the DEA model. Input variables were he number of employees, capital, and output variables were selected for start-up investment assets, operating income, and net profit. As a result of the analysis, technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency showed a pattern with an increase in average, but scale efficiency repeatedly increased and decreased. It is believed that the decline in technology efficiency was due to the decrease in pure technology efficiency, and the inefficiency of start-up investment companies seems to have influenced the inefficiency of start-up investment companies rather than the inefficiency of scale. In addition, the size revenue shows that the DRS value is gradually decreasing, and the IRS value is generally increasing. It is believed that efficiency can be improved if operational inefficiency is improved based on the results and efficiency measures are established through scale expansion.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.37-46
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• 2014

This study investigates the effects of the degree of preparation engaged in the related industry, and the amount of financial support program on R&D performance of technology based startup companies. This study seeks to discover the core variables that impacts most on business performance. However, it should be noted that the validity of such variables and their impacts on business performance can be contentious. The study sets hypothetical variables as following. Intensity of preparation of the startup company, amount of preparation and amount of work experience in related industry are independent variable. The amount of financial support program was selected as a moderating mediating variable. According to the results, the intensity of preparation had a positive relationship with R&D performance, as opposed to work experience of the founder having a negative relationship on R&D performance. The amount of support program had no significant relationship with R&D performance. Furthermore, there are negative modified effect between the amount of support program and work experience. And, there is no relationship modified effect between support program and work experience. Existing policies tend to lean heavily toward young entrepreneurs through support and guidance. The government has placed great emphasis on policies that aim to promote and create jobs for young individuals. The results suggest that the government should review their policies toward young technological entrepreneurs and that these entrepreneurs should prepare thoroughly before launching any startups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

Startups in Korea are experiencing for themselves the laws of survival through competition in the local and international market, and are performing active business movements based on these. Korea's economic growth rate is 2.6% due to the slump in the domestic demand and reduced exports brought by the MERSC incident in 2015. The Korea Development Institute has estimated the economic growth rate in 2016 to be around 3.0%. South Korea's economy is facing the crisis of low-growth solidification due to the decrease in economic growth, and it is forecasted that growth without employment and polarization will worsen. Startups in the high-tech industrial generation of a particular field wherein the market environment is rapidly changing must maintain a competitive advantage with the capabilities and functions exclusive to them. It is very important that they maintain a competitive edge by utilizing the capabilities exclusive to startup companies. Likewise, the accumulation of resources is also crucial in determining the success of a startup business. In a poor local startup ecosystem, majority of the startup companies are performing their business activities while striving for survival, rather than success. About 80% are struggling to survive and are failing to overcome the "Death Valley" faced 3-5 years after establishing the company. Since majority of the startups fail to achieve results during the initial stages of foundation, the importance of research on business activities and achievement during the early stages of establishment is being raised. In accordance to this, this research has performed an actual analysis on how the activities of startups during their preparation phase and early stages affect their achievements. A survey was done on the CEOs or executives (people in a position to make decisions) of local small and medium-sized enterprises that are considered start-ups, and 203 valid data were collected and analyzed. Results showed that the discoveries and utilized activities necessary for the businesses of startups have a significant impact on their achievement through the entrepreneur resources and external partners' cooperation; additionally, the related implications were discussed.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.87-115
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• 2023

This study aims to examine the causal relationships between sales and employment for public technology-based startups. Although there is a limit to statistical generalization due to the poor understanding of the actual conditions of public technology start-up companies, these companies were analyzed by classifying them into high-growth companise, potential growth companies, and other companies. In order to understand the causal relationship, and to estimate the time required to be effective, panel vector autoregression was applied. As a result, the performance creation mechanism was identified as government supoort and private investment was mutually causal with employment, sales did not cause employment, and employment caused sales. In other words, it was found that employment plays an mediator role in public technology based startups' performance mechanism. In addition, private investment had the effect of improving employment and sales in the short time than governments support, and showed that firms with high employment can attract government support and private investment. This study are academically meaningful in that they empirically revealed the process of performance creation, whereas previous studies had only shown whether there was an effect on performance. It also has a policy contribution by suggesting the need for effective policy promotion by considering the 'employment' factor, such as human resource support, as more important.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.81-93
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• 2023

Under the digital economy, companies are facing a new business environment. Previous studies with a traditional perspectives on start-ups explained they are at a disadvantaged compared to large companies in mobilizing resources and building new relationships. However, recent researches on the digital economy and platform ecosystems have suggested that digital platforms can be an efficient means of overcoming the liabilities of smallness and newness for start-up companies. Through platforms start-ups can secure routes to mobilize resources, collect and analyze market information. Especially as various platorms are established within categorized industry or market, unique characteristics and market awareness regarding an individual startup company have been formed. Accordingly there is also an advantage that startup companies have umbrella effect by participating in the platform. From this point of view, this study describes the process by which a start-up company effectively utilizes a platform to overcome the liabilities of newness and smallness through the case the study of 'Genie the Bottle'. The results suggest that platforms play a crucial role for start-ups to secure awareness and legitimacy and grow the market in the beauty industry in which high consumer involvement is dominant.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.25
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• pp.71-80
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• 2016

The meaning of innovative products pursued by pluralized societies is transforming. In the past, the markets were opened up after the products were released through various development strategies based on the needs of development. Recently, however, even the launching process of innovative products is differently operated and strategies with directions completely different from the past are used. In this regard, the paper aims to predict successful markets of innovative products in the future by analyzing the successful strategic cases of innovative products from both the past and the present. The following are the methodology and results of this study. - Conduct a case study and an analysis on which strategies were implemented after the release of successful innovative products in the past. - Conduct a case study and an analysis on the markets and launching trends of innovative products that were successful fairly recently. By reviewing the operation system of innovative products for each time period, it is assumed that startup companies releasing innovative products in the future will engage in the mass production of products through a pre-approval and post-production system, via overseas crowd funding. Moreover, we can expect that systems for partnerships between startups and conglomerates will be prepared in Korea within the near future. If we accurately perceive the operation trends related to the release of innovative products that come into existence by experiencing extreme changes, shortcuts to success will be available for startup companies preparing for such future.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.81-100
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• 2016

Much effort has been exerted to analyze online texts and understand how empirical results can help improve sales performance. In this research, we aim to extend this stream of research by decomposing online texts based on text sources, namely, companies and consumers. To be specific, we investigate how online texts driven by companies differ from those generated by consumers, and the extent to which both types of online texts have different effects on online sales. We obtained sales data from one of the biggest game publishers and merged them with online texts provided by companies using news articles and those created by consumers in user communities. The empirical analyses yield the following findings. Word visualization and topic analyses show that firms and consumers generate different contexts. Specifically, companies spread word to promote their own events whereas consumers produce online words to share winning strategies. Moreover, online sales are influenced by consumer-generated community topics whereas firm-driven topics in news articles have little to no effect. These findings suggest that companies should focus more on online texts generated by consumers rather than spreading their own words. Moreover, online sales strategies should take advantage of specific topics that have been proven to increase online sales. In particular, these findings give startup companies and small business owners in variety of industries the advantage when they use the online channel for distribution and as a marketing platform.