• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.217-240
• /
• 2023

For a while, Functional cosmetics, Cosmeceutical cosmetics, and Derma cosmetics have gained trust and become popular due to the consumers' strong interest in ingredients & efficacy. It's remarkable that Clean or Vegan brands are growing fast because they are emphasizing on different values from the other cosmetic brands. It's needed to attempt to analyze the influence relationship between consumer lifestyle and social value in these changes, and to find out whether the consumption of vegan cosmetics is related to satisfying the need for self-expression in a social atmosphere where ESG is emphasized on. This study analyzed the effect of lifestyle types and self-expression needs on the purchase intention of vegan cosmetics by mediating social values for cosmetics consumers. Lifestyle types were classified into appearance-oriented, health-oriented, and fashion-oriented. For empirical analysis, 321 questionnaires collected from cosmetics consumers living across the country were used. SPSS v26.0 and PROCESS macro v4.2 were used to analyze based on a single mediating model as a single mediator. As a result of the analysis, first, lifestyle types and self-expression needs, excluding appearance-oriented types, were found to have a positive (+) effect on social values. Second, it was found that social value had a positive (+) significant effect on the purchase intention of vegan cosmetics. Third, appearance-oriented, health-oriented, trend-seeking lifestyle types and self-expression needs were all found to have a positive (+) effect on the purchase intention of vegan cosmetics. Fourth, social values were found to mediate lifestyle types, self-expression needs, and purchase intentions, except for appearance-oriented types. Appearance-oriented consumers do not directly affect social values but affect purchase intentions, suggesting that appearance-oriented consumers may not be significantly affected by product-related social values. In a comparison of the relative influence size using standardization coefficients, self-expression needs had the greatest impact on the purchase intention of vegan cosmetics when mediating social values, and health-oriented ones had the least impact. The academic implications of this study include contributing to consumer behavior research by providing insights, mediation mechanisms, and consideration of the niche consumer sector, and directing further research into the cosmetics industry beyond forming marketing strategies and sustainable business practices.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.171-186
• /
• 2023

CEOs who have started and managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a lot of concerns about the sustainability of their businesses in the fierce management field and sometimes have the intention to discontinue their businesses. In this study, the perception of the business environment of SMEs (intensity of competition, difficulty in manpower management), the competency of the corporate (employee competency, product or service competitiveness, digital or technical capability), the competency of the CEO's (management competency and health status of CEO), and the perception of business succession on the CEO's intention to discontinue business were empirically studied with SME CEOs. This study conducted a survey of SME CEOs in various industries from March 20 to April 15, 2022, and verified the research hypothesis using SPSS 24.0 with 296 samples obtained. As a result of the study, the intensity of competition, the difficulty in manpower management, and the perception of business succession had a positive (+) effect on the intention to discontinue the business. On the other hand, the employee competency, the product or service competitiveness, the corporate digital or technical competency, and the CEO's health status had a negative (-) effect on the intention to discontinue business. Meanwhile, it was observed that government regulations also have a moderating effect on the intensity of competition, the difficulty in manpower management, the business succession perception of CEO, and the intention to discontinue business. This study has academic significance in that the concept of 'discontinuing business', which was fragmentarily scattered according to various preceding studies, was systematized based on the level of ownership change and voluntariness. And that it empirically analyzed factors related to the intention to discontinue business targeting SME CEOs. In addition, that it observed for the baby-boomer CEOs in Korea the factors influencing the intention to discontinue business and that it was confirmed that considering their age, organizing the business stable and handing it over to the successor was another positive concept of business discontinuation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.187-200
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine how the start-up education, start-up support system, and start-up mentoring directly and indirectly conducted in universities affects entrepreneurial Intention, and to present programs and directions that can increase the possibility of start-up for college students. This study analyzed the effects of college students' satisfaction with university entrepreneurship education, awareness of the entrepreneurship support system, and entrepreneurship mentoring on entrepreneurial will, and then analyzed how entrepreneurship efficacy affects entrepreneurial will as a moderating effect. The recognition of the start-up support system was divided into the government start-up support policy and the university start-up support project, and start-up mentoring was divided into mentoring function (problem-solving function, networking function, communication function, motivation function) and mentor trust (cognitive trust, emotional trust). Regression analysis was performed on satisfaction with college entrepreneurship education, perception of entrepreneurship support system, entrepreneurship mentoring as independent variables, and willingness to entrepreneurship as dependent variables. In addition, entrepreneurship efficacy was designated as a moderating variable and analyzed. As a result of the study, first, it was found that satisfaction with start-up education had a positive (+) effect on college students' willingness to start a business. Second, among the start-up support systems, university start-up support projects were found to have a positive (+) effect on college students' willingness to start a business. Third, as a result of verifying whether entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between college start-up support projects and college students' willingness to start a business while recognizing the start-up support system, it was found to have a moderating effect. The following implications can be derived based on the analysis results of this study. First, efforts to improve start-up education will be needed to increase the satisfaction of start-up education. Second, Through the operation of the start-up counseling center in the university, it will be possible to recognize the education system supported by the university, the university start-up support project that can carry out the indirect experience of start-up, and the government start-up support policy that supports funds. Third, It will be necessary to open a program that can provide start-up mentoring through connection with mentors in the start-up field, such as professors, employees, and senior start-ups in universities. Fourth, It is necessary to develop thorough education on the preparation process of start-ups, start-up special lectures where senior start-ups can indirectly experience the failure of start-ups, and programs for customized start-up education according to college students' major and individual tendencies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.91-107
• /
• 2023

Lean startup is a concept that combines the words "lean," meaning an efficient way of running a business, and "startup," meaning a new business. It is often cited as a strategy for minimizing failure in early-stage businesses, especially in software-based startups. By scrutinizing the case of a startup L, this study suggests that lean startup methodology(LSM) can be useful for hardware and manufacturing companies and identifies ways for early startups to successfully implement LSM. To this end, the study explained the core of LSM including the concepts of hypothesis-driven approach, BML feedback loop, minimum viable product(MVP), and pivot. Five criteria to evaluate the successful implementation of LSM were derived from the core concepts and applied to evaluate the case of startup L . The early startup L pivoted its main business model from defecation alert system for patients with limited mobility to one for infants or toddlers, and finally to a smart bottle for infants. In developing the former two products, analyzed from LSM's perspective, company L neither established a specific customer value proposition for its startup idea and nor verified it through MVP experiment, thus failed to create a BML feedback loop. However, through two rounds of pivots, startup L discovered new target customers and customer needs, and was able to establish a successful business model by repeatedly experimenting with MVPs with minimal effort and time. In other words, Company L's case shows that it is essential to go through the customer-market validation stage at the beginning of the business, and that it should be done through an MVP method that does not waste the startup's time and resources. It also shows that it is necessary to abandon and pivot a product or service that customers do not want, even if it is technically superior and functionally complete. Lastly, the study proves that the lean startup methodology is not limited to the software industry, but can also be applied to technology-based hardware industry. The findings of this study can be used as guidelines and methodologies for early-stage companies to minimize failures and to accelerate the process of establishing a business model, scaling up, and going global.

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

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.251-265
• /
• 2022

According to the 2019 statistics of the National Statistical Office, the population of old people over 65 is 7.69 million which consists of 14.9% of total population in Korea, and the world's fastest compressed-aging is being processed. Employees engaged in financial business as representative high-wage workers tend to choose voluntary retirement regardless of their business types, and rarely get a new job or establish their own business successfully. This study analyzes the effects of retirement expectations, social supports, and entrepreneurial intention for employees engaged in financial business, and the differences by individual characteristics on the preparation for their old age. The subjects include 280 people working at Seoul metropolitan and Daegu area. The data were analyzed with the SPSS Win Ver. 18.0 for frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, etc. and the results of the study are as follows. First, the result of analyzing the effect of retirement expectations of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for old age shows that the retirement expectations of the people who consider retirement is a new start meaningfully affect the financial and physical preparations for old age. Second, it is shown that family relations for employees engaged in financial business meaningfully affect the financial preparation, and family relations and friendship relations meaningfully affect the emotional and social preparations, despite social supports do not relevantly affect the financial preparation for old age. Third, it is also shown that the entrepreneurial intention of employees engaged in financial business does not relevantly affect the financial and physical preparations, but meaningfully affects the emotional and social preparations for old age. Fourth, the result of analyzing the effect of the individual characteristics of employees engaged in financial business on the preparation for their old age shows that age, marital status, and job grade do not relevantly affect, but the experience of entrepreneurship education more affects the preparation for old age than no-experience.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.115-128
• /
• 2022

This research aims to analyze of the Effect of Army Start-up Support Program (hereinafter, ASSP) on the level of discharged or scheduled to be discharged soldier's satisfaction of their military service. In addition, this paper also seeks to elaborate on how those Army-supported programs, such as Start-up competitions, mentoring, camp, and school, can increase the level of military service satisfaction. By participating in those programs, service members can leverage their time in the military to make opportunity for their future career rather than consider it as a career break, increasing their military service satisfaction. Finally, on the basis of findings, this paper advocates for expanding Service Members startup Support Program of government agencies and municipalities and enhancing younger population's individual capabilities through ASSP. This research used ASSPs, such as Army Start-up competitions, mentoring, camp, and school, as independent variables. For controlled variables, this paper takes demographic elements such as status and career path of the participants. Our empirical analysis reveals that ASSP has a direct impact on the military service satisfaction, supported by the statistics from the hierarchical regression analysis. However, the research also suggests that individual' military service satisfaction from ASSP may differ from one another in accordance with the controlled variables such as status and career of the participants. This paper proves that ASSP can play a substantial role in enhancing service members' capabilities during their time in military and that Army fosters talent and connects itself to the nation and society. In addition, this research could contribute to increasing employment rate of and expanding Start-up support program of government agencies and municipalities for younger population by providing empirical results which advocates the latter's necessity.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 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.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.49-65
• /
• 2022

This study conducted an exploratory study based on in-depth interviews to understand the characteristics and capabilities of female entrepreneurs to promote women entrepreneurship. Therefore, in this study, through in-depth interviews with eight female entrepreneurs, the main contents of entrepreneurial attitudes (need for independence, development desire, favorable conditions), start-up entry rate, start-up motivation, start-up activities and constraints were analyzed. As a result, first, it was found that the entrepreneurial attitude of female entrepreneurs has a strong motivation for successful management based on a feeling of self-satisfaction, has characteristics that prioritize independence and self-actualization, and favorable conditions for starting a business are important. Second, it was found that women's individual differences from men and social structural factors had no significant effect on the entry rate of women. Third, it was found that the most important entrepreneurship motivation for women is the spirit of challenge, self-satisfaction, and the desire to balance work and family. Fourth, female entrepreneurs showed little difference in perception between male and female entrepreneurs in terms of resource access, but there was some discrimination in the network. Fifth, the main industries of female entrepreneurs are small businesses, and there is a tendency to be concentrated in industries with low profit margins and low growth and sales. Finally, it was found that barriers to women's entrepreneurship still exist. Based on the results of this study, the following implications are suggested. First, this study is differentiated in that it mainly identified the characteristics of women's experiences and social environments while starting a business and running a business. Second, in the case of female entrepreneurs, there is a need to spread a positive awareness of women entrepreneurship by arguing that the barriers to entrepreneurship unique to women are not high and can be sufficiently overcome. Lastly, although opportunistic start-ups based on women's social experience or management ability in work life are important for women's entrepreneurship, government support policies are needed to promote professional technology start-ups.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.67-80
• /
• 2022

This study was conducted to derive policy measures such as fostering and supporting by examining the actual conditions of domestic startups. The subject of this study was the start-ups located in Seongnam-si, where Pangyo Techno Valley, which is the highest-level innovation cluster in Korea and is evaluated as a start-up mecca. Startups were defined as startups under 7 years old based on new technologies such as IT, BT, and CT, and the subjects of the study were selected. This can be seen as a step forward from previous research in that it embodies the concept of a startup that was previously abstract in a quantitatively measurable way. As a result of the analysis, about 94% of startups are distributed in the so-called "Death Valley" growth stage, and startups above scale-up, which means full-scale growth beyond BEP, account for about 6%. appeared to be occupied. He cited the problem of start-up funds as the biggest difficulty in the early stages of startups, and cited the loan evaluation method that prioritizes sales or collateral in raising funds as the biggest problem. In addition, start-ups rated the access to private investment capital such as VC, AC, and angel investors at a low level compared to policy funds, which are public funds. Most startups showed a lot of interest in overseas expansion, and they chose matching overseas investors such as overseas VCs as the biggest support for overseas expansion. The overall competitiveness in the overseas market was 49.6 points, which is less than 50 points out of 100, indicating that the overall competitiveness was somewhat inferior. It was analyzed that public support and investment in overseas sales channels (sales channels, distribution networks, etc.) should be prioritized along with enhancement of technological competitiveness in order for domestic startups to increase their competitiveness in overseas markets as well as in the domestic market.