• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.79-94
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine firm-level attributes related to Korean manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') decisions to implement smart factories. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses the provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea and the Korea Federation of SMEs. Manufacturing SMEs' decisions to implement smart factories in 2018-2019 were analyzed using multinomial logit and ordered logit models. Findings - The findings of this study suggest that firms' decisions to implement smart factories were positively related to firm size, R&D intensity, international market scope, and transactional relationships with customers. However, smart factory implementation decisions were not related to firm age and CEO gender. Research implications or Originality - This study illuminates firm-level attributes that may drive organizational innovation in the era of Industry 4.0 and thus contributes to the innovation adoption literature. This study also contributes to growing research on smart factories by analyzing the actual, progressive decisions to implement smart factories, as opposed to perceived intentions to implement them.

• Korean small business review
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.65-86
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• 2019

This study empirically analyzed how the elements of entrepreneurship and the fear of entrepreneurial failure influence entrepreneurial intention with each other in a situation that encourages startups. In particular, the moderating effect of fear of entrepreneurial failure was verified by dividing the fear of entrepreneurial failure into three sub-variables: fear of financial loss, fear of psychological loss, and fear of career loss. As a result, it was found that proactiveness and risk-taking had a positive effect on entrepreneurial intention, but innovativeness did not. Fear of entrepreneurial failure(all of sub-variables) was found to have no significantly moderating effect on the relationship between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. Therefore it seemed to have a negative effect as a independent variable. However, considering the regression coefficient(β) is positive or negative depending on the interaction terms of the sub-variables of fear of entrepreneurial failure and the entrepreneurship, it could be inferred that the moderating effect could be positive or negative. Based on this research results, a sophisticated entrepreneurship education program to inspire entrepreneurship and lower the fear of failure is needed in order to promote startups. And at the same time, a social safety net construction plan to reduce the fear of entrepreneurial failure needs to be prepared.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.91-107
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• 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
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2014

This study is preliminary founding start-ups of restaurant entrepreneurs to study the characteristics of management in order to provide useful information was studied. Survey period is from 2013 March 15 to August 31. About the nature of the preparation and establishment founder findings restaurant entrepreneurs of Western Gyeongnam area were most often in the form of an independent establishment has been compiled, work experience and other industries operating experience was more than restaurant entrepreneurs of operating experience. Hypothesis Testing in accordance with results of this study are as follows. First, the 50 founders than 30 founders quickly when the customer complaint or that service, order food and non-food note is issued after obtaining the order or that provide food, no customer is often inconvenient check the sharing services, such as personnel activities were devoting a lot of effort. Second, the re-startups restaurant entrepreneurs than new startups restaurant entrepreneurs was founded after the founder of career-related customer complaints about food more active coping was, and re-startups restaurant entrepreneurs by the founder other than business founded by the founder of the food-related customer complaints more aggressively for coping, respectively. Third, restaurant entrepreneurs of the store operations management has integrity, words and actions match, such as the degree of belief in the promise of reliability and the possibility of failure, which means the degree of recognition and response efforts are having an impact deal. Fourth, restaurant of food service management services and after-sales service has impact on the founder of the self-efficacy and self-efficacy of pre-service features and reliability founder affecting. Fifth, the revenue of the restaurant for dealing with customer complaints management includes efforts are having an impact. Sixth, restaurant founder of reliability and customer care has influenced the self-efficacy. Seventh, management of operational management activities have a positive impact on business performance are.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.515-525
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to suggest implications for the development of the senior care industry in Korea and how to apply it to the Korean market. For this study, a case analysis study was conducted on the successful business model of 'Driving Miss Daisy^®'. For the development of Korea's senior care industry, understanding of senior, establishing infrastructure for community care, and improving the treatment of professional personnel care should be preceded. In order to apply 'Driving Miss Daisy^®' to the Korean market, it was suggested that it is necessary to reduce regulations, develop differentiated services, establish linkage systems with various service institutions in the community, establish cooperative models between large and small businesses and startups.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.647-664
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to derive major policies that domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies should consider to maximize productivity and quality improvement by utilizing manufacturing data and AI, and to find priorities and implications. Methods: In this study, domestic and international issues and literature review by country were conducted to derive major considerations such as manufacturing AI technology, manufacturing AI talent, manufacturing AI data and manufacturing AI ecosystem. Additionally, the questionnaire survey targeting 46 experts of manufacturing data and AI industry were conducted. Finally, the major considerations and detailed factors importance were derived by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Results: As a result of the study, it was found that 'manufacturing AI technology', 'manufacturing AI talent', 'manufacturing AI data', and 'manufacturing AI ecosystem' exist as key considerations for domestic manufacturing AI. After empirical analysis, the importance of the four key considerations was found to be 'manufacturing AI ecosystem (0.272)', 'manufacturing AI data (0.265)', 'manufacturing AI technology (0.233)', and 'manufacturing AI talent (0.230)'. The importance of the derived four viewpoints is maintained at a similar level. In addition, looking at the detailed variables with the highest importance for each of the four perspectives, 'Best Practice', 'manufacturing data quality management regime, 'manufacturing data collection infrastructure', and 'manufacturing AI manpower level of solution providers' were found. Conclusion: For the sustainable growth of the domestic manufacturing AI ecosystem, it should be possible to develop and promote manufacturing AI policies in a balanced way by considering all four derived viewpoints. This paper is expected to be used as an effective guideline when developing policies for upgrading manufacturing through domestic manufacturing data and AI in the future.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.111-127
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• 2019

The "fourth industrial revolution" is changing society as a whole. Public innovation is needed to enhance national competitiveness. Amid these times' demands, the "maker movement," a new form of DIY movement that has revived since 2000, is regarded as a "popular innovation activity" that can respond to changing needs. In particular, "Makerspace," a significant activity area for the maker's movement, is drawing attention as a place where "Maker" shares each other's knowledge and resources, and share results. Makerspace has recently expanded its functions into a 'public innovation platform' or (preparation) start-up preparation space for start-ups. South Korea has also supported various types of "Makerspace" since 2010 as a policy for fostering an innovation base. The Ministry of Small and Medium Venture Business has been pushing for expansion of Makerspace since 2018 and is providing support by dividing it into "general rap" and "professional wrap" and "zero to Maker" spaces for novice makers in the beginning and necessary stages of makers, while "professional rap" is divided into "Maker to Maker" spaces for professionals. This study is about Makerspace, space where makers are active among the topics related to manufacturers. Thus, in this study, significant domestic and international studies related to Makerspace have been investigated so far, and trends in related studies have analyzed. Based on this, the research needs and specifics of Makerspace, which has recently expanded its role and functions. In particular, the Commission intends to present the need for research on Makerspace and specific areas of study from a start-up management perspective to promote qualitative growth of Makerspace, which is changing into a popular innovation platform in the era of the fourth industry, and inducing a start-up management interest in new manufacturing industry types.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.103-120
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• 2009

As business incubation centers (BICs) have been operating for more than 10 years in Korea, many early stage startups tend to use the services provided by the incubating centers. BICs in Korea have accumulated the knowledge and experience in the past ten years and their services have been considerably improved. The business incubating service has three facets : (1) business infrastructure service, (2) direct service, and (3) indirect service. The mission of BICs is to provide the early stage entrepreneurs with the incubating service in a limited period time to help them grow strong enough to survive the fierce competition after graduating from the incubation. However, the incubating services sometimes fail to foster the independence of new startup companies, and raise the dependence of many companies on BICs. Thus, the dependence on BICs is a very important factor to understand the survival of the incubated startup companies after graduation from BICs. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors that influence the firm's dependence on BICs and to characterize the relationships among the identified factors. The business incubating service is a core construct of this study. It includes various activities and resources, such as offering the physical facilities, legal service, and connecting them with outside organizations. These services are extensive and take various forms. They are provided by BICs directly or indirectly. Past studies have identified various incubating services and classify them in different ways. Based on the past studies, we classify the business incubating service into three categories as mentioned above : (1) business infrastructure support, (2) direct support, and (3) networking support. The business infrastructure support is to provide the essential resources to start the business, such as physical facilities. The direct support is to offer the business resources available in the BICs, such as human, technical, and administrational resources. Finally, the indirect service was to support the resource in the outside of business incubation center. Dependence is generally defined as the degree to which a client firm needs the resources provided by the service provider in order to achieve its goals. Dependence is generated when a firm recognizes the benefits of interacting with its counterpart. Hence, the more positive outcomes a firm derives from its relationship with the partner, the more dependent on the partner the firm must inevitably become. In business incubating, as a resident firm is incubated in longer period, we can predict that her dependence on BICs would be stronger. In order to foster the independence of the incubated firms, BICs have to be able to manipulate the provision of their services to control the firms' dependence on BICs. Based on the above discussion, the research model for relationships between dependence and its affecting factors was developed. We surveyed the companies residing in BICs to test our research model. The instrument of our study was modified, in part, on the basis of previous relevant studies. For the purposes of testing reliability and validity, preliminary testing was conducted with firms that were residing in BICs and incubated by the BICs in the region of Gwangju and Jeonnam. The questionnaire was modified in accordance with the pre-test feedback. We mailed to all of the firms that had been incubated by the BICs with the help of business incubating managers of each BIC. The survey was conducted over a three week period. Gifts (of approximately ₩10,000 value) were offered to all actively participating respondents. The incubating period was reported by the business incubating managers, and it was transformed using natural logarithms. A total of 180 firms participated in the survey. However, we excluded 4 cases due to a lack of consistency using reversed items in the answers of the companies, and 176 cases were used for the analysis. We acknowledge that 176 samples may not be sufficient to conduct regression analyses with 5 research variables in our study. Each variable was measured through multiple items. We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to assess their unidimensionality. In an effort to test the construct validity of the instruments, a principal component factor analysis was conducted with Varimax rotation. The items correspond well to each singular factor, demonstrating a high degree of convergent validity. As the factor loadings for a variable (or factor) are higher than the factor loadings for the other variables, the instrument's discriminant validity is shown to be clear. Each factor was extracted as expected, which explained 70.97, 66.321, and 52.97 percent, respectively, of the total variance each with eigen values greater than 1.000. The internal consistency reliability of the variables was evaluated by computing Cronbach's alphas. The Cronbach's alpha values of the variables, which ranged from 0.717 to 0.950, were all securely over 0.700, which is satisfactory. The reliability and validity of the research variables are all, therefore, considered acceptable. The effects of dependence were assessed using a regression analysis. The Pearson correlations were calculated for the variables, measured by interval or ratio scales. Potential multicollinearity among the antecedents was evaluated prior to the multiple regression analysis, as some of the variables were significantly correlated with others (e.g., direct service and indirect service). Although several variables show the evidence of significant correlations, their tolerance values range between 0.334 and 0.613, thereby demonstrating that multicollinearity is not a likely threat to the parameter estimates. Checking some basic assumptions for the regression analyses, we decided to conduct multiple regression analyses and moderated regression analyses to test the given hypotheses. The results of the regression analyses indicate that the regression model is significant at p < 0.001 (F = 44.260), and that the predictors of the research model explain 42.6 percent of the total variance. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 address the relationships between the dependence of the incubated firms and the business incubating services. Business infrastructure service, direct service, and indirect service are all significantly related with dependence (β = 0.300, p < 0.001; β = 0.230, p < 0.001; β = 0.226, p < 0.001), thus supporting Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3. When the incubating period is the moderator and dependence is the dependent variable, the addition of the interaction terms with the antecedents to the regression equation yielded a significant increase in R2 (F change = 2.789, p < 0.05). In particular, direct service and indirect service exert different effects on dependence. Hence, the results support Hypotheses 5 and 6. This study provides several strategies and specific calls to action for BICs, based on our empirical findings. Business infrastructure service has more effect on the firm's dependence than the other two services. The introduction of an additional high charge rate for a graduated but allowed to stay in the BIC is a basic and legitimate condition for the BIC to control the firm's dependence. We detected the differential effects of direct and indirect services on the firm's dependence. The firms with long incubating period are more sensitive to indirect service positively, and more sensitive to direct service negatively, when assessing their levels of dependence. This implies that BICs must develop a strategy on the basis of a firm's incubating period. Last but not least, it would be valuable to discover other important variables that influence the firm's dependence in the future studies. Moreover, future studies to explain the independence of startup companies in BICs would also be valuable.

• Korean small business review
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.73-88
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• 2009

This study examines the characteristics of 24 Korean hidden champions such as key success factors, core competences, strategic problems, and desirable future directions. The study categorized them into 8 types with Danny Miller's four trajectories and top manager's decision making style(rationality and passion). Danny Miller argued in his book, Icarus paradox, that outstanding firms will extend their orientations until they reach dangerous extremes and their momentum will result in common trajectories of decline. He suggested four very common success types: Craftsmen, Builders, Pioneers, Salesmen. He also suggested common trajectories of decline:Focusing(from Craftsmen to Tinkers), Venturing(from Builders to Imperialists), Inventing(from Pioneers to Escapists), Decoupling(from Salesmen to Drifts). In Korea, successful startups appear to possess three kinds of drive: Technology-drive, Vision-drive, Market-drive. Successful technology-driven firms tend to grow as craftsmen or pioneers. Successful vision-driven and market-driven ones tend to grow as builders and salesmen respectively. Korean top managers or founders seem to have two kinds of decision making style: Passion-based and Rationality-bases. Passion-based(passionate) entrepreneurs are biased towards action or proactiveness in competing and getting things done. Rationality- based ones tend to emphasis the effort devoted to scanning and analysing information to better understand a company's threats, opportunities and options. Consequently this study suggested 4*2 types of Korean hidden champions: (1) passionate craftsmen, (2) rational craftsmen, (3) passionate builders, (4) rational builders, (5) passionate pioneers, (6) rational pioneers, (7) passionate salesmen, (8) rational salesmen. These 8 type firms showed different success stories and appeared to possess different trajectories of decline. These hidden champions have acquired competitive advantage within domestic or globally niche markets in spite of the weak market power and lack of internal resources. They have maintained their sustainable competitiveness by utilizing three types of growth strategy; (1) penetrating into the global market, (2) exploring new service market, (3) occupying the domestic market. According to the types of growth strategy, these firms showed different financial outcomes and possessed different issues for maintaining their competitiveness. This study found that Korean hidden champions were facing serious challenges from the transforming economic structure these days and possessed the decline potential from their success momentum or self-complacence. It argues that they need to take a new growth engine not to decline in the turbulent environment. It also discusses how firms overcome the economic crisis and find a new business area in promising industries for the future. It summarized the recent policy of Korean government called as "Green Growth" and discussed how small firms utilize such benefits and supports from the government. Other implications for firm strategies and governmental policies were discussed.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.41-50
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• 2019

Block chain technology revolutionizes the 'double entry bookkeeping' of accounting principles in 600 years. It will be an opportunity for you to become one. The advent of the block chain will revolutionize the accounting world. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a skill. The use of block chains for accounting leads to the occurrence of transactions. It's easy to identify a transaction, and it's easy to fake or tamper with it. The accounting industry because it is difficult to communicate transparent accounting information to stake holders. Transformations will be possible across the board (Carlozo, 2017). An entity shall provide financial information that is useful to interested parties in making reasonable economic decisions. Transactions arising from business activities are recorded and provided in the books. Interested parties are here. We need to make decisions to protect our interests and make those decisions rationally. To make a decision, we know how the outcome of the decision will affect our self-interest. Because it has to do so, it uses corporate information for this purpose. But the investor is one way of doing business. It is difficult to trust the information provided by (Yermack, 2017). As a result, ICO companies, startups, small businesses lose a lot of business opportunities because they don't have investors. In addition, the management mixes cash flows with accounting interests to indicate changes in cash flows. It experiences failure in its business due to its inability to analyze and predict faithfully. But it's a blockhead in accounting. Applying the factors and recording them in the book will result in a number of benefits for different stake holders. It can be provided. The financial information in the block chain is not subject to further review or verification. It can improve the timeliness and increase reliability of financial information because it cannot be forged or tampered with (Delloitte, 2016). Based on the fourth industrial revolution, the pace of change in all sectors of society has never been faster. Based on block chain technology, decision-making structure is based on vertical structure of the past. Transforming into a horizontal structure collapses existing tools and advances transparency and decentralization a change of Copernican interpersonal awareness with the trend of the times, which is becoming angry with modern people.