• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.65-80
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• 2022

Despite the uncertainty and risky factors of startups, the special and critical role of accelerators in carrying out professional nurturing and investment for them is becoming increasingly significant in the startup social-system. However, academic research on investment determinants that have a profound impact on the survival of accelerators is lacking, and there are only a few empirical studies on the classification and importance of factors, and they do not enjoy the benefits of theoretical studies. This study proposes a business model innovation framework based on the business model innovation theory that reflects the nature and properties of startups that are investment targets of accelerators and derives 12 investment decision factors. The framework defines that the target, direction, and performable force of startup innovation are a business model, strategy, and dynamic capability. Besides, the framework analyzes the investment decision factors of the existing accelerators based on the business model innovation framework to verify the suitability and sufficiency of the composition. As a result of the analysis, first, most of the items were faithfully composed from a static point of view of business model innovation, but it was found that the factors related to the core activities to evaluate the activity and customer relationship were insufficient. Second, from the strategic point of view, the necessity of developing factors that can encompass the definition and content of core resources, which are internal strategic factors, was raised. Third, from the dynamic point of view, it was found that many of the investment determinants of accelerators were concentrated on the lower level of dynamic competencies. This can be judged as a result of reflecting the characteristics of a startup that needs to develop a solution with few resources and a small number of team members. In addition, the roles and interrelationships between each factor are not clear, thus it was found as a limiting point for startups to view and evaluate the direction and process in which startups dynamically innovate their business models. This study is considerably differentiated in that it provides a business model innovation framework and offers a theoretical basis for investment determinants by deriving the investment determinants of accelerators based on the framework and design the foundation for subsequent research. The business model innovation framework presented in this study has great implications in that it contributes to the achievement of startups, accelerators, and startup support organizations.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.600-616
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• 2022

This study contemplates spatial context of startup in manufacturing, mainly analyzing job creation effects of time lag of startups in manufacturing at different technology levels. Using DID model, we found that each region including capital, non-capital and metropolitan area shows different job creation effects of time lag. In capial region, startup cohort in high R&D intensity manufacturing was found to show short-term job creation effects, but in non-capital region, long-term job creation effects was found with the one in medium-high R&D intensity manufacturing. In case of metropolitan area, we couldn't find much evidence of job creation effects that was statistically significant. The result of analysis implied that, in capital region, startup support policies, targeting at high R&D intensity manufacturing, ought to be focused on scale-up of startups that survived for a certain period. And non-capital area and some of metropolitan areas in non-capital region that have comparatively inferior infrastructure and brain-drain problems as well should focus on fostering startups in medium-high R&D intensity manufacturing in a long-term perspective and utilize their traditional manufacturing base.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2020

Accelerators that invest in early startups, as well as nursery and overall management, have recently emerged as "key players" in the startup ecosystem. This can be proved by the case where the number of domestic accelerators registered in the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups has recently reached 208. Accelerators provide the necessary education for early-stage companies, including guidance for a certain period of time, and support startups in ways such as demo days to attract subsequent investment after the seed investment. There is not much research in academia about what factors impact on these accelerators when making investment decisions at the time of seed investment. In this study, we checked the meaning and function of the accelerator and tried to analyze what factors affect on accelerators when making a decision to invest in startups. The research method is based on a literature survey of previous studies on investment decision-making factors of venture capital and angel investors, and a lens model and judgment analysis method through empirical research targeting 43 accelerator investment decision-makers. Empirical analysis shows that accelerators have three of the key factors to consider when choosing the first startup to invest and educate; entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial traits, their product and service expertise and a potential return on success. This will provide an opportunity for early startups to gain strategic access to accelerators when they need money or need a structured educational program. Also, the results obtained through this research will be a kind of guideline for startups to attract accelerators' investment. The significance of this study is that discriminatory evidence was presented on the accelerator determinants of investment, and it would be highly suggestive to startups and related public institutions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.45-55
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• 2022

Accelerator is a private investment institution that provides startups with comprehensive solutions to solve various difficulties such as startup facilities, funds, commercialization, securing a market etc. In addition to the role of an investor as a new startup support model, accelerators have contributed much to improvement of business ability of startups through intensive mentoring. Considering that previous studies gave weight to the determinants of investment from the perspective of investors, this study made a comparative analysis on the relative importance of determinants of investment in startups among accelerators, investors and entrepreneurs through the method of AHP. Results show that accelerators and investors regard "managerial characteristics" of startups as of the highest importance, whereas entrepreneurs think that "market characteristics" of startups are the most important. The result stems from an empirical judgment from the perspective of investors that success of startups depends on the ability of entrepreneur, and it is considered that investors evaluated marketability of startups as the most important factor in consideration of investment payback period. The result is similar to the result of previous studies on the determinants of investment determinants of angel investors and venture capitals. This paper is expected to make a contribution to the advancement of investment decision-making model for accelerators to discover startups with high possibility to grow and achieve more in incubation and investment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.67-80
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• 2020

This study has been conducted at a time when Korean government continues to extend support for youth startups as part of its policy to create jobs and the focus moves from career and employment to youth startups with a growing interest in the field of youth startups. Against this background, this study aims to identify difficulty factors of youth startups in areas besides the Seoul Metropolitan Area, seek ways to overcome difficulty factors, and propose policy implications. To this end, this study set five criteria and 25 sub-criteria to evaluate the difficulties of youth startups by reviewing previous studies and conducting literature review, and performing brainstorming method. The empirical analysis of the evaluation criteria was performed, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, on youths aged 19 to 39 in Gunsan area. The analysis results showed that the largest difficulty factors facing local youths include business model establishment, business administration and management, and startup funding in the criteria. As for sub-criteria, the largest difficulty factors are market information acquisition, technology commercialization, project feasibility, technology development, and new market pioneering in descending order. Local youths have much difficulty about the process of turning a business item into a product and commercializing it. According to a comparative analysis by gender, men were a relatively high difficulty in commercializing business models than women. men were a relatively high difficulty in commercializing business models than women. On the other hand, women were higher than men in all factors (management management, entrepreneurship, improvement of entrepreneurship system, and improvement of entrepreneurship awareness) except for factors affecting business model. In addition, the factors of entrepreneurship were found to be relatively different among young people (college students, prospective entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs). In conclusion, it was suggested that in order to revitalize youth entrepreneurship in the region, it is necessary to actively resolve the difficulties of business model commercialization rather than entrepreneurship funds. In addition, it is necessary to strategically support customized entrepreneurship support and situational administrative services because gender and hierarchical difficulties are different than general solutions. This study presented practical priorities and derivation methods for the entrepreneurship difficulties faced by local youth, and suggested measures and improvements for vitalizing local youth entrepreneurship in the future.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.261-276
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• 2020

This study seeks to find an effective support plan through the success factors recognized in the early stages of startup and those recognized after success by grasping the success factors of successful small business entrepreneurs at each stage from the pre-start stage to the growth stage. To this end, a qualitative study through interviews was conducted with successful convenience store franchisees to derive success factors from the start-up preparation stage to the early stage and growth stage. The success factors of starting a small business were studied in consideration of the characteristics of franchise convenience store startups using the ERI model and the ERIS model applied in the study on the performance of startups. The success factors were studied using the multisite service firm life cycle of Sasser et al.(1978) reflecting the results. As a result of the study, the key factors of successful franchisees were the selection of the location of the first store, the selection of strategic additional stores, and the successful renewal of the contract. Depending on the characteristics of the founder, the enterprising franchisees took an active attitude in selecting strategic locations for additional stores and defending the commercial district, while the relatively conservative franchisees showed an active attitude toward store operation and renewal from a management perspective. In particular, the entrepreneur's mind is important in the preparation stage, and the importance of the entrepreneur's management strategy was discovered in the entire business cycle. Based on the results of this study, this study specifically sought out a start-up plan to effectively apply it to the future growth stage.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.47-65
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• 2020

With the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in sight, innovative business models utilizing new technologies are emerging, and startups are enjoying an abundance of opportunities based on the agility to respond to disruptive innovations and the opening to new technologies. However, what is most important in creating a sustainable start-up ecosystem is not the start-up itself, but the process of research-start-investment-investment-the leap to listing and big business-in order to build a virtuous circle of startups that leads to re-investment. To this end, the environment created in the hub area where start-ups were conducted is important, and these material and non-material environmental factors are described as being inclusive by the word "entrepreneurial ecosystem." This study aims to provide implications for Korea's entrepreneurial ecosystem through the study of the interaction of the elements that make up the start-up ecosystem and the relationship of ecosystem participants in Singapore. Singapore has been consistently mentioned as the top two Asian countries in assessing the start-up environment and business environment. In this process, six elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem presented by Isenberg(2010)-policies, finance, culture, support, human resources, and market-are the best frameworks for analyzing entrepreneurial ecosystems in terms of well encompassing prior studies related to entrepreneurial ecosystem elements, and a model of regional transformation is formed focusing on some elements to suit Singapore, the target area of study. By considering that Singapore's political nature would inevitably have a huge impact on finance, Smart Nation policy was having an impact on university education related to entrepreneurship, and that the entrepreneurial networks and global connectivity formed within Singapore's start-up infrastructure had a significant impact on Singapore's start-up's performance, researches needed to look more at the factors of policy, culture and market. In addition, qualitative research of participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystem was essential to understand the internal interaction of the elements of the start-up ecosystem, so the semi-structured survey was conducted by visiting the site. As such, this study examined the status of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem based on qualitative research focused on policies, culture and market elements of Singapore's start-up ecosystem, and intended to provide implications for regulations related to start-ups, the role of universities and start-up infrastructure through comparison with Korea. This could contribute not only to the future research of the start-up ecosystem, but also to the creation of a start-up infrastructure, boosting the start-up ecosystem, and the establishment of the orientation of the start-up education in universities.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.183-196
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• 2018

In this study, we conducted in - depth interviews of young entrepreneurs who are currently in the process of establishing new entrepreneurs management diagnosis and consulting for young entrepreneurs, and found the common difficulties experienced in young entrepreneurs' perception of entrepreneurship, In addition, through a case study, we verified product suitability through customer issue / solution suitability, idea marketability verification and MVP (Minimum Viable Product) using Lean Canvas according to the structure of Lean Start-up It is aimed at voluntary management diagnosis and consulting of small business owners, activation of young entrepreneurs' entrepreneurship, and reduction of startup failure rate. The purpose of this study is to examine the items of five young entrepreneurs from the perspective of the customer for about 10 months, focusing on the case of small entrepreneurs in the small entrepreneurs support project. Or we could provide the customer's problem or solution based on Lean Start-up. This study was conducted as a case - based qualitative study due to the limited sample and it is hoped that this study will be used as a basic research to verify the effectiveness of the lean start-up methodology for small business owners through quantitative research.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.203-220
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of entrepreneurs' well-being, and to propose several ways to improve it. First, the factors influencing entrepreneurs' well-being were explored via previous literature review, and positive psychological capital based on positive psychology was selected as the main factor. In addition, the hypotheses were formulated and the research model was constructed by selecting authentic leadership, mastery goal orientation, and social support as the antecedents predictably associated with positive psychological capital. To empirically analyze the proposed model, a questionnaire survey was conducted for the entrepreneurs who fulfilled the training/coaching/consulting programs offered by the Youth Startup Academy. By using the collected 133 responses, PLS-Structural Equation Analysis, PLS-Multi Group Analysis(MGA), and PLS-Importance-Performance Map Analysis(IPMA) were performed. As a result, it was found that positive psychological capital had a high causal relationship with the well-being of entrepreneurs; and authentic leadership and mastery goal orientation had a positive effect on positive psychological capital. However, the statistical significance of the impact of social support has not been verified. While differences in causality between early and growing stages of start-ups only acted as sub-factors of positive psychological capital, the aforementioned three antecedents showed a significant difference for hope and optimism, respectively. This study expanded the topic of entrepreneurship-related research, which mostly focuses on identifying the performance factors of start-ups. It is meaningful in that it empirically verified the causality model constructed by exploring the factors with respect to the mental well-being of entrepreneurs, which is a main theme in the entrepreneurship-related research. These results found in the current study will render practical insights to entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators.

• 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.