• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.31-58
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• 2018

In this study, we empirically investigated the antecedents of crowdfunding success in the arts and cultural field using the case of Tumblbug in Korea. We collected data on 494 projects listed on Tumblebug in the arts and culture category that includes feature film, documentary, short film, animation, and Web series, as of June 2018. We analyzed the factors associated with the final amount raised via crowdfunding on Tumblbug using the hierarchical regression method. We find that the social capital accumulated by a focal entrepreneur (i.e., the proposer/designer of a focal project) through prior participation in other related projects and social communication activities carried out during the funding period, respectively, have positive effects on the final amount raised. More interestingly, we also find that the intensity of social communication plays a central role in the funding success of arts and culture-related projects by supplementing the lack of the entrepreneur's social capital and the reward features including a given project.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

The purpose of this research is to improve the investment success rate for startups in the water industry for the development of the entrepreneurial environment of the Korean water industry. In this research, we identified investment determinants through prior research and stratified them, and then surveyed the investor group at the beginning of the start-up using the FGI method, and determined the order of the investment determinants of investors. At the same time, we classified 41 start-ups related to the water industry into two groups: the group that received investment and the group that did not in the early stages of the start-up. Then we investigated the understanding of the investor's investment determinants, ranked them, and compared them by using the AHP technique. Through this, this research proposes five implications. First, it is important for start-ups in the early stages to receive seed investment to revitalize investment for startups in the water industry. For this, startups need to understand investors and prepare to attract investment with the perspective of angel investors rather than the perspective of VC investors. Second, Start-ups in the water sector should consider that the characteristics of the founder are important in order to receive seed investment, and also need to define their business at the industry and market level, and provide relevant rationale to meet the expectations of investors who value industry expertise and experience, and to increase the possibility of seed investment, which is important in the early stages of a startup. Third, institutions, such as K-water(Korea Water Resources Corporation), that support water industry startups need to conduct open innovation business opportunities discovery programs linked to startups so that startups currently participating in the startup support program could have business opportunities from the business infrastructure of platform-forming companies in the water industry. In particular, such institutions should help founders develop their industrial expertise and careers by supporting this type of start-up preparation process through the participation of in-house venture founders. Fourth, when K-water uses the government start-up support fund to discover and foster founders, it should increase initial contact with seed investors, conduct more thorough verification of business plans, and develop programs that use government start-up support funds to prepare a business suitable for seed angel investors. Fifth, K-water should support seed by connecting funds for initial investment among funds operated by itself. It is also necessary to develop a program that links the company receiving the seed investment with VC investment, not angel investment in cooperation with the VC fund operation entity participating as an LP so that companies that have attracted seed investment could attract follow-up VC investment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-24
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• 2021

The Korean government is currently expanding the business startup incubator support program and funds for new ventures with innovative technology in order to spread the second venture boom. However, despite the fact that entrepreneurial education and mentoring that entrepreneurs should have are important parts for the sustainable growth of the startup, some companies selected for government support programs are reluctant to participate in programs such as entrepreneurship education and mentoring for the sole purpose of funding commercialization. This research addressed the effects of entrepreneurial alertness with opportunity awareness as its medium and the small business mentoring service along with the number of times the mentoring has taken place, on the corporate performances. The results of empirical research are as follow: the first one is that scanning-search and evaluation-judgment can influence a company's performance (financial, non-financial) through opportunity recognition, with the exception of association-connection, which is a sub-factor of entrepreneurial alertness. Secondly, it was found to affect a company's financial and non-financial performance through opportunity recognition for financing mentoring, technical support mentoring, and management support mentoring. Thirdly, it was found that the number of mentoring also affects the financial and non-financial performance of a company through opportunity recognition. The implications of this study are that it should be revisited that program managers consider rooms that do not violate the startup founder's strategic decision-making opportunities when designing and operating the program as entrepreneurial alertness sub-factor association-connection does not affect corporate performance through opportunity recognition. This study also emphasizes the need for customized mentoring to meet the outcome goals of each startup, as it has been empirically clarified that the mentoring provided to the startup by the government's support is important. The contribution of this research is that entrepreneurial alertness and opportunity recognition that are treated as important components in research for entrepreneurship, and the factors of mentoring and mentoring frequency that are recognized as important elements in the practical aspect of startup business are clarified theoretically and empirically as an influential factor in corporate performance. And this study also provide a rationale for the startup business support agency supplying mentoring.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.119-138
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• 2016

Since the Industrial Revolution, which made the mass production and mass distribution of standardized goods possible, machine-made (manufactured) products have accounted for the majority of the market. However, in recent years, the phenomenon of purchasing even more expensive handmade products has become a noticeable trend as consumers have started to acknowledge the value of handmade products, such as the craftsman's commitment, belief in their quality and scarcity, and the sense of self-esteem from having them,. Consumer interest in these handmade products has shown explosive growth and has been coupled with the recent development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies. Etsy.com is the world's largest online handmade platform. It is no different from any other online platform; it provides an online market where buyers and sellers virtually meet to share information and transact business. However, Etsy.com is different in that shops within this platform only deal with handmade products in a variety of categories, ranging from jewelry to toys. Since its establishment in 2005, despite being limited to handmade products, Etsy.com has enjoyed rapid growth in membership, transaction volume, and revenue. Most recently in April 2015, it raised funds through an initial public offering (IPO) of more than 1.8 billion USD, which demonstrates the huge potential of online handmade platforms. After the success of Etsy.com, various types of online handmade platforms such as Handmade at Amazon, ArtFire, DaWanda, and Craft is ART have emerged and are now competing with each other, at the same time, which has increased the size of the market. According to Deloitte's 2015 holiday survey on which types of gifts the respondents plan to buy during the holiday season, about 16% of U.S. consumers chose "homemade or craft items (e.g., Etsy purchase)," which was the same rate as those for the computer game and shoes categories. This indicates that consumer interests in online handmade platforms will continue to rise in the future. However, this high interest in the market for handmade products and their platforms has not yet led to academic research. Most extant studies have only focused on machine-made products and intelligent services for them. This indicates a lack of studies on handmade products and their intelligent services on virtual platforms. Therefore, this study used signaling theory and prior research on the effects of sellers' characteristics on their performance (e.g., total sales and price premiums) in the buyer-seller relationship to identify the key influencing e-Image factors (e.g., reputation, size, information sharing, and length of relationship). Then, their impacts on the performance of shops within the online handmade platform were empirically examined; the dataset was collected from Etsy.com through the application of web harvesting technology. The results from the structural equation modeling revealed that the reputation, size, and information sharing have significant effects on the total sales, while the reputation and length of relationship influence price premiums. This study extended the online platform research into online handmade platform research by identifying key influencing e-Image factors on within-platform shop's total sales and price premiums based on signaling theory and then performed a statistical investigation. These findings are expected to be a stepping stone for future studies on intelligent online handmade services as well as handmade products themselves. Furthermore, the findings of the study provide online handmade platform operators with practical guidelines on how to implement intelligent online handmade services. They should also help shop managers build their marketing strategies in a more specific and effective manner by suggesting key influencing e-Image factors. The results of this study should contribute to the vitalization of intelligent online handmade services by providing clues on how to maximize within-platform shops' total sales and price premiums.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.103-115
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• 2016

The 106 buildings of 200 meters' height or greater were completed around the world in 2015 (CTBUH, The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). They beat every previous year on record, including the previous record high of 99 completions in 2014. This brings the total number of 200-meter-plus buildings in the world to 1,040, exceeding 1,000 for the first time in history and marking a 392% increase from the year 2000, when only 265 existed. South Korea recorded three completions during 2015 - improving slightly over 2014, in which it had one. This study focused on the fact that high-rise building development project risks have not reduced in Korea in spite of numerous studies and measures. And it attempted to examine whether existing studies and measures have been presented on the basis of the accurate analysis of existing studies and measures and classify and analyze the characteristics of each phase' s risk factors in the hope that its results would be one reference point as to the measure to prevent high-rise building development project risks in the future. A high-rise building development project is the high risk project as compared with the low-rise project. Because a high-rise development project takes long and is very sensitive to the changing environment. Therefore, in order to succeed the project it becomes necessary to effectively manage the risk involved in the process of the high-rise building development project. The result of this study can be used as the guideline to make the risk management system for the high-rise development project.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.687-714
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• 2009

In this paper, we study empirically the relations between financial constraints and dividend adjustment speed of innovative small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) listed on Kosdaq Market of Korea Exchange. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows. Determinants suggested by the major theories of dividends, namely, residual dividend theory, dividend signaling theory, agency theory, catering theory, and transactions cost theory explain significantly the dividend payout policy of Kosdaq SMEs. Lintner's dividend adjustment model indicates that Kosdaq SMEs have long run target payout ratio, and that Kosdaq SMEs adjust partially the gap between actual and target payout ratio each year. In the core variables of Lintner (1956) dividend adjustment model, past DPS has more effect than current EPS. These results suggest that Kosdaq SMEs maintain stable dividend policy which maintain past DPS level without corporate special reasons. Dividend adjustment speed of innovative Kosdaq SMEs is more fast than that of uninnovative Kosdaq SMEs, and dividend adjustment speed of financial unconstrained innovative Kosdaq SMEs is faster than that of financial constrained innovative Kosdaq SMEs. Futhermore, dividend adjustment speed of innovative Kosdaq SMEs classified by Small and Medium Business Administration is faster than that of unclassified innovative Kosdaq SMEs. The former is linked with financial policies and services like credit guaranteed service, venture investment fund, insurance program, and so on. In conclusion, past DPS and current EPS suggested by the Lintner's dividend adjustment model explain mainly dividend adjustment speed, and financial constraints explain also partially. Therefore, if managers of innovative Kosdaq SMEs can properly understand of the effects of financial constraints on dividend smoothing, they can maintain constantly dividend policy. This is encouraging result for Korea government as it has implemented many policies to commit to innovative Kosdaq SMEs.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.17-30
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the characteristics of start-up CEOs on the performance of investment attraction from the perspective of Series A investment. The results of the study are as follows. First, when the educational level of start-up CEOs was high and startup CEOs had start-up experience and investment attraction experience, venture investors such as venture capital had a significantly positive (+) effect on the investment for start-ups. This was systematically significantly positive even when control variables were introduced. When start-up CEOs had work experiences, there was no significantly positive effect on the total investment amount for start-ups but a significantly positive (+) effect on the average investment amount. Second, the standardization coefficient of total investment amount was larger in the case of start-up experience than that in the case of investment attraction experience while the standardization coefficient of average investment amount was larger in the case of investment attraction experience than that in the case of start-up experience. This suggests that the start-up experience is important for the total investment amount while the investment attraction experience is important for the average investment amount. Third, when the sales of start-ups were high at the time of Series A investment, the total investment amount and the average investment amount were also significantly high. Even if early start-ups are less profitable or have losses, the start-ups with a certain level of sales seem to be attractive investment targets for venture capital. The results of this study are useful for the investment decisions of venture capital and the financing strategies of start-ups. The implications for pre-CEOs preparing for start-ups art that the total amount of investment will increase if they have expertise through degree acquisition, challenge start-ups, gain start-up experience and implement investment attraction. Even if CEOs of start-ups do not have start-up experience, the average amount of investment for start-ups can increase if they have work experience in related industries.