• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to classify individual startups by growth stage based on data-based quantitative criteria. This is to provide a basis for systematic support for government startups based on accurate statistics on the startup growth process. This startups were the TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) support company, which used a relatively reliable startup. We found seed money to complete MVP (Minimum Viable Product) within 1.5 years after establishment, verified PMF (Product-Market Fit) within 1 year, attracted Series A investment within 2.5 years after establishment, and successfully commercialized it. It attracted Series B investment for stable growth within 1.5 years (Series B investment within 4 years from start-up). The results of the study, the division of government programs that support stage-based startup commercialization, that is, within three years and within seven years of establishment, is significant to date. Three directions are suggested for future research. First, develop indicators for monitoring startup growth stages. Second, it continuously updates the annual changes and tracks the growth stages of individual startups. Third, we discover the successful growth law of technology-based startups by applying in-depth case analysis of successful startups to the model.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-21
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• 2023

This study is related to the performance of open innovation collaboration between startups and large corporations and financial institutions. In the life cycle of a typical company, the growth of a startup is difficult to predict. Startups that possess innovative technology but have only recently been established seek to verify their technology and capabilities by participating in open innovation with large corporations and financial institutions, and further strive to lay the foundation for corporate growth. However, if you approach it only as a theoretical coexistence plan, it will be viewed as a vague attempt from the startup's perspective. The purpose of this study is to differentiately verify the benefits of open innovation by analyzing the difference in sales growth of startups for the purpose of sales performance based on the open innovation participation of large companies and small and medium-sized companies(startups). In verifying this, the analysis was based on the sales results of the actual open innovation collaboration B2C model, and the difference was confirmed by comparing before and after collaboration. Here, the differentiation of the study was added by reflecting the corporate growth stage theory, a growth theory. When the corporate growth stage theory was excluded, it was confirmed that sales growth due to open innovation of startups was applied from the third month, and sales growth depending on participation was confirmed to be significant. On the other hand, when the corporate growth stage theory was applied, sales growth was not significant, but the difference in growth could be confirmed from the fourth month, and it was also confirmed in sales growth depending on participation. As a result, this study objectively confirms the effects that can be gained when startups participate in Open-innovation, and it is expected that Open-innovation led by large corporations, financial institutions, and government agencies will develop into a high-quality program environment.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.71-87
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• 2020

As startup companies are recognized as the important source of job creation and economic growth, the study is trying to find out the current situation of startup companies and their success factors in South Korea. The study analyzes the success factor of Woowa Brothers recognized as a unicorn start-up company in 2018 by using ERIS model and Start-up Developmental Stages. The ERIS model emphasizes Entrepreneurs, Resources, Industry Environment and Strategy for company performance and three developmental stages are divided into initiation, commercial and growth stages. The results indicate that the Woowa Brothers' success factor was to catch the appropriate timing in ERIS and to combine unique methods by differentiating itself from existing competitors at each stage. With analyses of success factor of Woowa Brothers as a case model, the study reveals limitations and recommends the direction of future research for producing more unicorn companies in South Korea.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.165-186
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• 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
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.39-50
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• 2018

A main purpose of this research is to identify success factors of start-up based on the AER case study. As a result of case analysis, In the early stage, the success factors of start-up are the entrepreneur's history, experience, expertise, prompt judgment, problem-solving ability, the capacity and teamwork of its members, business networks and supporting government start-ups. In the commercialization stage, securing commercialization and investment funds, timing, differentiation strategy, overseas advancement, and acceptance of customer feedback are important. In the growth stage (maturity stage), new product launches and diversification, and establishment of organizational culture are important. Based on the results of this analysis, this study sought success factors and implications for each stage and sought research directions in the future.

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

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.85-99
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• 2019

Startups need proper external supports to survive and build strong foundations for growth in their early stage. Accelerators help such startups by providing tangible and intangible resources. Accordingly, accelerators are creating a social environment that can effectively support the startups in the early stage, distinct from other institutions that fund or help the startups. However, the actual impact of accelerators on startups has not been yet fully scrutinized thoroughly, especially with the lack of theoretical lenses to comprehend accelerators. This paper aims to build a theoretical foundation to understand the role of accelerator, focusing on the network-based perspective. We briefly overview the concept of accelerator and the current status of the accelerator industry. Subsequently, focusing on the network that accelerators and startups create, this paper examines how the characteristics of the network relationships affect the growth and survival of the early-stage startups. Thus, by offering systematic analysis of the underlying mechanisms of the effects of the accelerators under network-based approach, this paper suggests a direction for the future empirical research on the topic of startup accelerator.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.25-29
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• 2020

최근까지의 국내외 투자 의사결정 요인을 살펴보면 주로 벤처캐피탈리스트 투자 성공 요인이 연구되어 왔다. 하지만, 2018년 이후 폭발적으로 증가한 투자 자금과, 우수한 스타트업의 성장으로 인해, 기업가들의 투자 거절 사례가 빈번하게 발생하고 있다. 따라서 투자자는 우수한 스타트업에 투자하기 위해 어떤 조건에서 투자를 거절당하는지 인지해야 할 필요가 있다. 본 연구는 주로 초기 창업자들에게 투자하는 국내외 벤처캐피탈리스트 7명을 인터뷰 하여 거절된 투자의 요인을 살펴보고, 우수한 스타트업 투자 유치를 위한 방향을 제시하려고 한다. 연구 결과 최근 3년 이내 투자자들은 잦은 투자 거절 경험을 하였으며, 기업가의 투자사 거절 요인은 1) 투자자의 낮은 산업 전문성, 2) 투자자의 낮은 장기 지향성이다. 먼저, 기업가는 많은 투자 기회를 인식하며, 과거와 달리 비재무적 조건에 비중을 두는 것으로 나타났다. 그 중 투자 기업의 전문성은 특히 기술 스타트업에서 많이 발견되며, 투자자가 피투자기업이 속한 산업의 기술적 이해가 낮을수록 투자가 거절될 수 있으며, 투자 목적의 경우, 투자사가 제시하는 투자의 목적이 장기 지향성이 낮을수록 투자가 거절될 수 있다. 이는 스타트업의 대표와 투자사의 상호성에도 부정적인 영향을 주기 때문이다. 따라서 초기 기술 기업에 투자하는 투자사일수록 투자사가 보유하고 있는 산업전문성과 일치하는 스타트업에 투자를 제안해야 하며, 초기 기술 기업의 기업가는 높은 기업 애착도가 있음으로, 스타트업과 컨텍하는 단계에서부터 투자사의 투자 성향에 대해 끊임없이 알리며, 장기지향적인 투자를 제안해야 한다.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-46
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• 2019

Even though Korea is strengthening the support for startups due to the limitations of growth policies focusing on large companies, the survival rate of startups is very low, so that there should be more efforts to increase the survival rate of startups. As the existing startup support institutions have provided only fragmentary supports to startups, it would be necessary to have the comprehensive support institutions. As an alternative, the accelerator providing the comprehensive support such as spatial support, education, mentoring, networking, seed investment, and connection for follow-up investment to the initial startups was legalized in Korea of 2016, based on the registration system. Currently, within less than two year from then, there have been much interest in it enough to have about 136 registered accelerators. In the United States, the accelerator was introduced more than ten years ago. In Korea, however, it is still in the initial stage, so that the researches or social consensus on the accelerator are not sufficient. Thus, this study aims to suggest the measures for the development of accelerator and the consensus on the decision making for the selection of accelerator of startups, by researching which parts are considered when startups in the accelerator stage select the accelerator. As a result of the empirical analysis, the factor that has the greatest influence on decision making factors when startup chooses an accelerator was the subsequent investment attraction. This can be explained to the accelerator as desired, considering the factor that the startup of the initial stage places the most importance on growth as investment. We hope that these research results will be sustainable in future research related to accelerators, in hopes that it will be useful for establishing accelerator policies for domestic startups and direction for revitalizing related industries.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1-14
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• 2021

Innovation and Scale-up of Start-up companies are becoming important national tasks. In the past, it was spread the start-up policy paradigm such as 'Start-up America', 'Start-up Chile', 'Start-up Britain' to overcome the recession globally. However as the economic recovery has become more visible recently in advanced economies, it is shifting from a start-up support policy to a scale-up oriented policy paradigm such as 'Scale-up America', Scale-up UK', 'Scale-up Denmark'. It is necessary to enter the scale-up phase beyond the start-up phase to increase the number of high-quality jobs and to continue economic growth. Therefore, it is necessary to grow the start-up into a strong medium-sized company and to lay the foundation for survival. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to consider the antecedent factors that influence the scale-up aspiration for the start-up firm to grow into a scale-up company, and empirically identifies the differences between the stages of economic development and entrepreneurs in the country. In order to accomplish the purpose, this study predicted scale-up by aspiration which is a predictor of scale-up behavior because it is difficult to achieve visible growth in a short period of time due to the characteristics of start-up companies. In order to empirically explore these relationships, the data were collected from nascent entrepreneurs who have less than 3.5 years of the Adult Population Survey(APS) among the subjects surveyed by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor(GEM) and the national economic development stage are divided into Innovation-driven, Efficiency-driven, Factor-driven type economies. For the test hypotheses, this study adopted the multi-level model analysis for comparison between national economic development stages and using the R 3.5.0 program. The results of this study are as follows. There is difference between the national economic development and the entrepreneur in the relationship between innovation orientation of entrepreneurs and scale-up aspirations. As the economy of the country develops, the innovation activity of the entrepreneur becomes more active. Since start-ups are heavily influenced by entrepreneurs, there is a difference in the degree of aspiration depending on how innovative an entrepreneur is in the same environment. In terms of the relationship between innovation orientation and scale-up aspiration, the fear of failure was found to differ between national economic development and entrepreneurs. The fear of failure differ from country to country, and this is one of the important factors affecting entrepreneurial activities. It is expected that the factors influencing the growth of the start-up companies which are identified through the results of these studies, will be used to create a suitable scale-up ecosystem according to the national economic development stage.