• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.29-43
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• 2019

This paper empirically analyzed the relationship between the characteristics of venture business founders and management performance, setting the management strategy as a parameter to provide a suggestion for the survival and development of venture companies that play an important role in the national economy and job creation. Previous studies in Korea have analyzed the relationship between the characteristics of business founders, management strategies and management performance in a single dimension. This paper, however, explained the business performance of a company from a multi-dimensional perspective while setting the characteristics of business founders as independent variables and setting the business strategy of the enterprise as a parameter. The first result of the analysis shows that the characteristics of venture business founders have a positive effect on business performance. In particular, among the characteristics of venture business founders, a progressive spirit has had the greatest impact on business performance. On the other hand, the influence of risk sensitivity was very weak. Second, the characteristics of venture business founders were found to have a positive effect on business strategy. In particular, innovation was an important variable that affected the technological innovation differentiation strategy, and a progressive spirit was the most influential factor in the marketing differentiation strategy. Third, management strategies of venture firms were found to have a positive effect on business performance. In particular, the technology innovation differentiation strategy has a greater impact on business performance than the marketing differentiation strategy. Fourth, it was revealed that management strategy partially has a mediated effect on the relationship between the characteristics of venture business founders and management performance. In other words, it was found that the characteristics of the founders have a direct impact on business performance but if it is linked to management strategy it has an indirect effect on business performance. The results of this study show that business performance improves when venture business founders' personal characteristics and the firms' management strategy are combined.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.67-83
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• 2023

The social venture start-up phenomenon is found from the perspectives of social enterprise and for-profit enterprise. This study aims to fundamentally explore the start-up phenomenon of social ventures from these two perspectives. Considering the lack of prior research that researched both social and commercial perspectives at the same time, this paper analyzed using grounded theory approach of Strauss & Corbin(1998), an inductive research method that analyzes based on prior research and interview data. In order to collect data for this study, eight corporate representatives currently operating social ventures were interviewed and data and phenomena were analyzed. This progressed to a theoretical saturation where no additional information was derived. The analysis results of this study using the grounded theory approach are as follows. As a result of open coding and axial coding, 147 concepts and 70 subcategories were derived, and 18 categories were derived through the final abstraction process. In the selective coding, 'expansion of social venture entry in the social domain' and 'expansion of social function of for-profit companies' were selected as key categories, and a story line was formed around this. In this study, we saw that it is necessary to conduct academic research and analysis on the competitive factors required for companies that pursue the values of two conflicting relationships, such as social ventures, to survive with competitiveness. In practice, concepts such as collaboration with for-profit companies, value combination, entrepreneurship competency and performance improvement, social value execution competency reinforcement, communication strategy, for-profit enterprise value investment, and entrepreneur management competency were derived. This study explains the social venture phenomenon for social enterprises, commercial enterprises, and entrepreneurs who want to enter the social venture field. It is expected to provide the implications necessary for successful social venture startups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.115-125
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• 2022

In today's era when the concept of a lifelong job has disappeared, starting a business is an essential consideration for university students not only as an alternative factor in finding employment, but also from the perspective of the entire life. Today, most universities in Korea are operating entrepreneurship education programs, such as entrepreneurship classes as a curriculum, and start-up clubs as a non-curricular program to foster entrepreneurship among university students. In previous studies, entrepreneurship is a factor influencing the entrepreneurship intention. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of university students' entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship intention through a entrepreneurship education program (participation in a start-up club, taking an entrepreneurship course) on entrepreneurship behavior. There are some empirical studies on whether entrepreneurship education programs such as participation in startup contests affect the entrepreneurship intention of university students, but not much compared to their importance. It is difficult to find an empirical study examining the effects of entrepreneurship and start-up education programs on entrepreneurship intention and entrepreneurship behavior in domestic and foreign studies. Therefore, in this study, one domestic university that operates a start-up club and a entrepreneurship course was selected and the online questionnaire was distributed to all current students, and the collected 127 questionnaires were used for empirical analysis As a result of the study, first, it was confirmed that initiative and risk-taking, which are sub-factors of entrepreneurship of university students, had a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intention, respectively, and that innovation did not have a significant positive effect. Second, it was confirmed that university students' participation in a start-up club, a sub-factor of the start-up education program, had a significant positive effect on their entrepreneurial intention, and that taking a start-up course did not have a significant positive effect. Third, it was confirmed that the entrepreneurial intention of university students had a significant positive effect on entrepreneurship behavior. Fourth, it was confirmed that the entrepreneurial intention had a mediating effect between each of the factors of risk-taking, and participation in a start-up club and entrepreneurial behavior. This study suggests that university students can increase their risk-taking, increase their entrepreneurial intention by participating in a startup club, and reach a entrepreneurial behavior through this as a medium.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 2016

Entrepreneurs usually require financing for starting their businesses. Their primary source may be personal savings, family and friends' funds, or loans from banks and other financial institutions. Immigrant and native entrepreneurs may differ in their sources of financing, and their differences in sources may depend on their societal context. The research questions are, how does an entrepreneur's migration status -immigrant versus native-influence primary source of financing, and how is this influence moderated by wealth of the country? Data are a sample of 14,369 immigrant and native owner-managers of starting businesses in 29 countries, surveyed in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, and analyzed by hierarchical mixed models. Analyses reveal that immigrant and native entrepreneurs similarly frequently have their personal savings and family as the primary source of funding. Native entrepreneurs, more often than immigrant entrepreneurs, have banks and other financial institutions as the primary source of funding. Immigrants, more often than native entrepreneurs, have friends and yet other sources as the primary source of funding. These effects of migration status upon source of financing, however, are moderated by the national context, in that wealth of the country boosts the immigrants' use of friends and other sources of financing.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.147-161
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• 2017

Korea is a country having shortage of natural resources, but to overcome this issue and to nurture national competitiveness it is challenging for national-lead economic policy, citizen's dedicated efforts and technological innovation for achieving economic growth. Since the financial crisis, the government has boldly promoted policies to nurture venture companies to make structural adjustments for the sophistication of the industrial structure and job creation. Various policies for establishing the foundation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which the process of start-up, growth, recovery and reinvest are virtually circulated are presented by the Business Incubators. Recently the Business Incubators neither present a direction differentiated from the vocation of Business Incubator, and nor the operating methods for leading the changing of Business Incubator environment, which threatening the role of Incubating and growing early startup companies. In order to explore the development change of the business incubator, in this research we analyzed the published papers from 1998 to 2016 of business incubator government polices, research methods, related research topics and other major variables. The analysis of the research trends of business incubator revealed the lack of depth case studies, diversity of research topics, and the study of certain limited variables. For the development of the business incubator, case studies of the institutions which carried out excellent incubator and research on the incubation system of the institutions, that are similar to the incubation center are required. This research suggest further research on the case studies of excellent business incubator and agencies, and the center director and manager, which is the center of human resources, and hopes for the revitalization of business incubator researches.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.200-207
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• 2020

The purpose of the establishment of Fab Lab is to promote the sustainable development of local communities around the world. To this end, The Fab foundation are preparing a resource-circulating society that maintains a city's self-sufficiency rate of 50% or more by 2054. In developed countries, Fab Lab is not only a manufacturing space for startup support, but an open innovation space for learning and creation. In addition, in emerging countries, Fab Lab is playing a role as a digital production center to create and share appropriate new technologies by reflecting the needs of local communities. India has 70 Fab Labs, the largest emerging country, ahead of Russia's 48. India's Fab Lab is conducting a collaboration project through regular meetings held every six months. The subject of this study, Fab Lab Vigyan Ashram, is defined as a place to transfer the concept of digital lab to alternative schools in rural India. In this study, we looked at a case in which an alternative school for an agricultural community called Vigyan Ashram, the modern version of the Gurukula system, successfully combined with the digital fabrication called Fab Lab to become a new citizen-led making community of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Based on this, we explored the development model of the Indian Fab Lab that fits the local situation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2023

This study classified and confirmed the learning modes about start-ups that are based on the accelerator's program which was focusing on the Korean accelerators in the ICT field targeting global market. Eight accelerator practitioners were interviewed who were in charge of operating programs for accelerators, qualitatively analyzing method of the interview was conducted. The interview results to identify various learning modes that accelerators provide to startups through programs. In order to identify and classify learning modes, the researcher reviewed various prior documents and using categories of experience accumulation, observation, experimentation, trial and error, and improvisation as a priori code for the qualitative analysis. The interview results were analyzed through a subject analysis. As the result of the study, the learning modes offered by the accelerator's programs to startups were confirmed, with two subcategories identified for each of the five categories: experiential, learning from others, experimental, trial and error, and improvisation. Given the limited research on accelerator programs and their main function, the main function of accelerators, this study identified the types of learning modes that offered by the accelerator's programs to startups from the perspective of learning. This study provides important insights into the types of learning modes that offered by the accelerator programs, which can help to improve our understanding of how accelerators support organizational learning for startups. Additionally, this information can be useful for startups considering in participating in the accelerator programs, as it can help them making informed decisions about their involvement.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.141-156
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• 2023

Due to the unprecedented worldwide pandemic of the new Covid-19 infection, business trends of companies have changed significantly. Therefore, it is strongly required to monitor the rapid changes of innovation trends to design and plan future businesses. Since the pandemic, many studies have attempted to analyze business changes, but they are limited to specific industries and are insufficient in terms of data objectivity. In response, this study aims to analyze business trends after Covid-19 using Crunchbase, a global startup data. The data is collected and preprocessed every two years from 2018 to 2021 to compare the business trends. To capture the major trends, a network analysis is conducted for the industry groups and industry information based on the co-occurrence. To analyze the minor trends, LDA-based topic modelling and word2vec-based clustering is used. As a result, e-commerce, education, delivery, game and entertainment industries are promising based on their technological advances, showing extension and diversification of industry boundaries as well as digitalization and servitization of business contents. This study is expected to help venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to understand the rapid changes under the impact of Covid-19 and to make right decisions for the future.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.41-55
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• 2023

In order to secure sustainable competitiveness of startups, business model innovation is an important task to achieve competitive advantage by transforming the various elements that make up the business model. This study conducted a multi-case analysis study on leading smart farm companies around the world using an analysis framework based on business model theory. Through this, we sought to identify business model types and their constituent elements. For this, 19 companies were selected from the list of top 10 investment startups of the year for the past three years published by Agfunder, a global investment research company specializing in AgTech. Then data collection and analysis of the company cases were conducted according to the case study protocol. As a result of the study, the business model types were analyzed into four types: large-scale centralized production model, medium-to-large local distributed production model, small-scale hyperlocal modular FaaS model, and small-scale hyperlocal turnkey solution supply model. A comparative analysis was conducted on five business model components for each type, and strategic implications were derived through this. This study is expected to contribute to improving the competitiveness of domestic smart farm startups and diversifying their strategies by identifying the business models of overseas leading companies in the smart farm field using an academic analysis framework.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2018

For a long time the German economy was primarily defined by large corporations and thriving small and medium-sized enterprises. Since about 2005 a second strand has started to emerge and it is one which is becoming increasingly important and is creating jobs - start-ups in the digital sector. This start-up activity is taking an important role in Germany's economic development: Start-up companies spawn innovations and create jobs, thus promoting the concept of competition. In general "start-up" refers to digitally-driven companies that are not more than five years old. Germany's start-up policy consists of three main parts. First of all, Germany has the characteristics of technology-based start-ups. The Hartz reform since 2002 has shown its focus on technology-based start-ups. In particular, it is the most appropriate for a start-up company to take the role of a new technology company to respond to changes in the global industrial structure. Second, it is approaching from a long-term perspective. In this regard, the small business policy, including Germany's new business policy, is seen as a tradition that can be consistent and can make policy decisions based on the basics rather than following the times. Third, the government is implementing policies centered on demand. Germany's start-up policy is summarized as a technology-based policy and new job creation. The policy response is that the government seeks the best combination of policies by adapting them to the times from the broad trend of employment market policies. What is important here is that policies are made based on consumers, not suppliers, in the process of policy making and implementation. With the Digital Agenda 2020 the Federal government has likewise committed itself to preparing the digital economy for international competition and making Germany the "No. 1 digital growth country in Europe". Ever since 1998 the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has awarded the "EXIST" start-up scholarship to students and graduates. The Ministry also invests in the High Tech start-up fund. Together with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and 18 other investors from the world of business the seed investor promotes young technology companies. Germany offers start-ups a good infrastructure and lots of funding opportunities. Berlin is regarded as Europe's start-up capital and also attracts lots of international young entrepreneurs.