• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.81-97
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• 2022

This paper's purpose is to get hold of the recent research trend by analyzing the variables uesd in startups related papers. The startups related papers in this paper are the papers which include 'startups' in the title of the registered papers from the year 2013 to the year 2020. This study's analysis methods are text-mining of all variables and text-network analysis of affected variables. Visualizing tool for network analysis is Gephi. The result of variables' analysis is as follows. First, independent variables consist mainly of variables about startups' internal factors and outside environment, but due to startups' features like early stage company's features, innovative features, most of variables are about enterprise internal competitiveness, marketing 4P strategy, entrepreneurship, coopreation method, transformational leadership, enterprise features, lean startup strategy, enterprise internal communication, value orientation, task conflict, relationship conflict, knowledge sharing, etc. Second, dependent variables are mainly about outcome, and are classified into financial performance and non-financial performance by overall concept. In other words, startups related papers have higher interest in non-financial performance, like management performance, team performance, SCM performance as well as financial performance like sales quantity owing to startups' immaturity in getting good financial performance. Through this study we can find out as follows. Although there are not many officially registered papers dealing with startups, those papers include various themes about stratups. For example, there are trendy themes like lean startups strategy, crowdfunding, influencer and accelerator, etc.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2022.04a
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• pp.197-204
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• 2022

국가차원의 창업장려책으로 인해 제2의 벤처붐이라고 부를 만큼 스타트업 및 벤처 창업이 활성화되면서, 데스밸리를 극복하고 창업의 성공률을 높이기 위한 노력의 중요성이 대두되고 있다. 기업이 생존율을 높이고 성장으로 나아가기 위해서는 죽음의 계곡에 직면하는 가장 큰 부분인 자금 조달 및 투자유치에 대한 고민과 대책이 필요하다. 창업의 활성화는 창업초기의 높은 실패율을 낮출 수 있는지의 여부가 그 성패를 좌우하는 중요한 요인이다. 기업의 생존은 기업의 내적 요인뿐만 아니라 기업의 외적요인인 시장이나 산업의 상황에 의해서 영향을 받는다. 본 연구에서는 혁신 부서를 보유한 기업의 전략적 지향성과 외부지식활용 능력인 흡수역량이 스타트업의 데스밸리 극복에 미치는 영향을 살펴보고자 한다. 또한 스타트업 생태계 특징인 개방형혁신과 벤처캐피탈 지원의 조절효과를 분석하고자 한다. 종속변수는 기업이 손익분기점을 달성 한 후의 매출액, 순이익, 시장점유율, 종업원 수의 증가를 봄으로써 데스밸리 극복의 기준으로 삼고자 한다. 분석결과 전략적 지향성은 데스밸리 극복에 정(+)의 영향을 주는 것을 밝혀졌다. 흡수역량과 개방형혁신, 벤처캐피탈의 지원의 조절효과는 표본수가 적고 결측값 있으므로 유의미한 영향을 확인하지 못하였지만 추후 표본수를 늘려 다시 측정한 후 그 결과를 보고자 한다.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to find out which factors determine the success of start-up in the initial market and what are the most important determinants. For the empirical analysis, the questionnaire related to the analysis of success factors for start-up success was designed according to the quantitative analysis (AHP technique). First, we selected 8 representative success factors for successful start-up in the initial market. In order to determine the degree of priority among these factors, we surveyed 12 entrepreneurs who are interested in entrepreneurship, universities, research institutes, and public officials. As a result of the empirical analysis, 51% of the funds in the tier 1 were ranked as the top priority to determine success factors. Followed by research and development (32.5%), management (8.7%) and marketing (7.8%). In particular, when each of the four items is calculated as 100 according to the result of the tier 1, and the tier 2 is converted, the foreign investment is analyzed as 43.7%. It was followed by 15.14% of R & D facilities, 14.07% of ideas, 8.7% of managerial ability, 7.29% of domestic investment, 5.85% of buyer feedback, 3.3% of development strategy and 1.95% of marketing strategy. Among the eight success factors, overseas investment items showed the closest preference to half, and it was the most important variable that determines the success or failure of market entry. The implication of this study is that many start-ups in Korea expect to receive investment and support from overseas accelerators. This means that overseas investment itself has been recognized as a start-up that makes services and products that can be used in the global market. A high preference for attracting foreign investment is due to the fact that the amount of investment is larger than that of Korea and that it can flexibly cope with the pressure on the performance compared to domestic investors. In this study, it was meaningful that we could confirm this fact through questionnaires of start-up experts. In future research, we need to find a viable alternative through studying how to provide start-up to foreign direct investment at the national level.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.173-209
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• 2021

Start-up accelerators are a new type of investor that provide mentoring, education and seed capital to start-ups for a fixed duration and receive a certain stake in them in return. They help start-ups achieve successful commercialization. With increase in performance visibility, the number of private and public sector accelerators rose across domestic and international markets. Private sector accelerators are established and operated by private entities while public sector accelerators are established and operated by the government. Both play complementary roles that are becoming increasingly important to start-ups. Therefore, this study aims to examine the differences in major operational goals and investment determinants between private and public sectors and to understand their implications. The results show that the private sector prioritizes profit generation through the investment, while the public sector aims to contribute to the development of high-growth start-ups, and create region-specific and technology-specific start-up ecosystems. Additionally, both groups consider customer needs the most important determinant. Public groups are more conservative in investments and tend to place importance on objective indicators such as patents, partners, mentors, and co-founders. Conversely, private groups value the capabilities of founders and their ease of collaboration with accelerators. These findings can help start-ups get support from public or private accelerators more easily. It will also help public and private accelerators refine the criteria for selecting start-ups.

• 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.

• 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.11 no.5
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• pp.29-43
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• 2016

The Lean Startup, a methodology for minimizing failure rate of startups, has been receiving attention since its publication in 2011. Although it has been receiving enormous attention as an effective methodology of startups' growth and the emergence of unicorn companies, it is undeniable that the theoretical research and cases on this topic have not been fully accumulated in Korea. Progress of management theory has been made when combining the theory and case studies. In this paper, we thus excavated the 'Cardoc' case, which has applied the lean startup concept to the entire process of service and customer development from the inception of its product design. The following are the findings of the case. First, for the successful application of lean startup, it is essential that all team members to understand the lean startup concept and are willing to apply it thoroughly to the business management. Second, the prompt launching of MVP(Minimum Viable Product) is more important than table discussion. Third, it is crucial to select the appropriate key metrics and analytic tools for effective learning. Fourth, startup must scale up promptly as soon as it verifies the product-market fit through the BML(Build-Measure-Learn) iteration cycle. Fifth, all new business expansion should be lean. Cardoc is currently testing new MVPs in order to move onto the next scale-up process with huge investments in newly added segments. This study is meaningful in that it elaborates the representative case of a Korean startup that has applied the lean startup strategy under the circumstance of insufficient discussion of Korean startup cases in comparison with growing attention both in concept development and case accumulation abroad. We hope that this paper can be a stepping stone for future relevant research on the implementation of lean startup methodology in Korea.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.13-35
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• 2020

Startup accelerators are a new type of investors providing a certain amount of shares for imparting education, mentoring, networking, and providing space and seed money that can directly resolve the difficulties faced by nascent entrepreneurs (Clarysse, 2016). Startup accelerators have expanded worldwide as their influence over the startup ecosystem has increasingly been established (Pauwels et al., 2016; Cohen & Hochberg, 2014). This study was conducted to derive investment determinants of startup accelerators that are emerging as major investment players around the world. To this end, the accelerator-type determinants of investment were derived. As previous research on this topic is nonexistent, this process involved qualitative meta-synthesis, literature reviews, observation, and in-depth interviews. First, more than 30 research papers were examined for the determinants of investment for firms at an early stage of their foundation, and the categories and determinants of investment in the relevant studies were comparatively analyzed using qualitative meta-synthesis. Further, related data were investigated to identify the characteristics of accelerators, and the startup evaluation process of US accelerators was studied. The more than 100 questions raised during this process were coded to examine the determinants of investment that accelerators considered important. In-depth interviews were conducted with four US accelerators to identify the characteristics of accelerators and key determinants of investment. Ultimately, 5 categories of accelerator-type determinants of investment and 26 subordinate determinants of investment were derived. The results were verified and supplemented by consulting with seven accelerators in Korea. The results were confirmed after pilot tests and verification by seven domestic accelerators. After confirming the accelerator-type determinants, the reliability of them was verified by examining the importance and priority of each category through the quantitative survey of Korean accelerators. The research that elicited the accelerator-type investment determinants is the first research and is expected to be a major reference to the progress of subsequent studies. This research that systematically derived the investment determinants of the accelerator is expected to make major contributions to the progress of follow-up studies, the process of selecting startups, and the investment decision-making process of the accelerators.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.101-116
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• 2019

Technology-based start-up is important in that it encourages innovation, facilitates the development of new products and services, and contributes to job creation. Technology-based start-up activates entrepreneurship when appropriate support is provided within the ecosystem. Thus, understanding the technology-based start-up ecosystem is crucial. The purpose of this study is as follows. First, in Herrmann et al.'s(2015) study, we compare and analyze the ecosystem of each country by selecting representative regions such as Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, London and Singapore which have the highest ranking in the start-up ecosystem. Second, we try to deeply understand the start-up ecosystem based on in-depth interviews with various stakeholders such as VC investors, start-ups, support organizations, and professors related to the Korean start-up ecosystem. Finally, based on the results of the study, we suggest development and activation of Korean technology-based start-up ecosystem. As a result, the Seoul start-up ecosystem showed a positive evaluation of government support compared to other advanced countries. In addition, it was confirmed that the ratio of tele-work and start-up company working experience of employees was higher than other countries. On the other hand, in Seoul, It was confirmed that overseas market performance, human resource diversity, attracting investment, hiring technological engineers, and the ratio of female entrepreneurs were lower than those of overseas advanced countries. In addition, according to the results of the interview analysis, Seoul was able to find that start-up ecosystems such as individual angel investors, accelerators, support institution, and media are developing thanks to the government's market-oriented policy support. However, in order for this development to continue, it is necessary to improve the continuous investment system, expansion of diversity, investment return system, and accessibility to the global market. A discussion on this issue is presented.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2021

Existing research on the investment relationship between venture capital and start-up companies has mainly focused on choosing a startup from the perspective of venture capital, an investor. However, as competition among venture capital has increased recently, excellent start-ups with proven technology are choosing venture capital in reversely. This study investigated key elements that affect the selection of the venture capital by a startup. To this end, we looked at which venture capital company was selected as the final investor for startups that have received investment proposals from multiple venture capitals at the same time. Six early start-ups(pre-series A/Series A) and five mid-term (Series B/C) start-ups were interviewed to focus on the influence of the three elements regarding venture capital - 1) venture capital reputation, 2) relationship between cofounders and investors, and 3) value adding service provided by venture capital - on choice. As a result of the research, the investment portfolio among the reputations of venture capital was a very important element in selecting venture capital. However, it has been shown that the age and asset under management of venture capital are not important. Relationships have emerged as a very important element. Finally, as for venture capital's value-adding services, start-ups in this study did not consider it important. In particular, consulting and monitoring by venture capital has been found to be a burdening attribute for startups. This study suggests implications that can increase the probability of successful investment by venture capital in the investment market where investment competition is fierce, and enhance mutual understanding between venture capital and startups.