• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.308-338
• /
• 2020

The entrepreneurial journey is not short of challenges, and about 90% + tech start-ups experience failure (Startup Genome, 2019). The magnitude of the challenges varies across the tech start-up lifecycle stages, namely emergence, stability, and growth. This opens the research question, do the profiles of a start-up and its co-founder impact start-up success or failure across its lifecycle stages? This study aims to understand and identify the profiles of tech start-ups and their co-founders. We gathered primary data from 151 start-ups (Status: 101 failed and 50 successful ones), and they are across different lifecycle stages and represent six major start-up hubs in India. The chi-square test on status and start-up's lifecycle stage indicates a noticeable correlation, and they are not independent. The Kruskal Wallis test was used to distinguish statistically significant profile attributes. The parameters distinguishing success and failure are identified, and the need to deliver customer experience is emphasized by the start-up profile attributes: Product/service, high-tech nature of a start-up, investor fund availed, co-founder experience, and employee count. The importance of entrepreneurial experience is ascertained with entrepreneur profile attributes: Entrepreneurial expertise, the number of prior and current start-ups, their willingness to start again in the event of failure, and age of co-founder, which is a proxy to learning and experience. This study has implications for entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.317-323
• /
• 2020

Although the start-up companies in the manufacturing industry have a great job creation effect, there is a lack of research on start-up and development in the manufacturing industry. Using a sample of 201 in manufacturing start-up companies, we proposed that founder's experience and technical competencies will positively influence performance in manufacturing star-up companies. We also proposed that founder's technical competence will mediate the relationship between founder's experience and performance. The results of this study supported most of our hypotheses, implying that founder's experience and technical competence could be crucial especially in the beginning stage of manufacturing start-up companies.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.197-202
• /
• 2020

The business incubator is a useful system to help start-up companies, providing various supporting systems from the technical supporting system to human resources supporting system. This article investigates the moderating effect of technical support and competence support of business incubators' on the relationship between founder's experiences and performance of the company. A total 201 sample were used to empirically test the hypotheses. The results of the study partially supported the hypotheses, implying the needs of specific supporting systems for start-ups. Managerial implications are also discussed.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2020

In this study, we hypothesized that the needs for start-up support services may vary depending on the founder's psychological characteristics, such as self-efficacy or his attitude toward uncertainty. To verify this, a survey was conducted on the founders of 86 companies located in Business Incubators at Seoul and Daejeon and an empirical analysis was conducted based on the data. According to the analysis, the higher the self-efficacy of the founder, the more active he expressed his willingness to accept the start-up support service, which aims to provide start-up zones to busy areas outside the university. While the founder, who has experienced failure in the past, responded positively to attracting customers located outside the university. The results of this study supported the hypothesis and suggest that differentiated start-up support services should be designed by including not only characteristics at the level of start-up companies, such as industries and growth stages, but also the psychological characteristics of start-ups in important consideration.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.11 no.10
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2013

Purpose - Appropriate response to the fast changing economic environment determines SMEs' competiveness in the era of globalization and open market and, therefore, government policies to strengthen SME's competitiveness will be very important in the future. It is time to investigate the element of strategic orientation that is necessary for strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs, and its effect on the success of a business start-up. This study analyzes the network orientation in addition to existing strategic orientation, and focuses on price and quality management capability as mediators for strategic orientation and outcomes of business start-ups. Research design/data/methodology - The orientations of technology-based business founders were classified into market, technology, network, and entrepreneurial orientation. We then investigated the effect of these orientations on product price and quality management capability, as well as the influence of price and quality management capability on the outcome of a business start-up. This study is based on the nation-wide survey of the founders and members of technology-based business establishments. The survey was administered to 300 selected companies via email for a period of one month, at the end of which 175 companies replied with valid answers. Further, for effective and objective research, we used SPSS 14.0 and Amos 7.0 for structural equation modeling assumptions and hypothesis verification. Results - Except for entrepreneurial orientation, the other three orientations, namely, technology, market, and network orientations, affect the price management capability according to our results. The price management capability relates significantly with the sales and customer satisfaction. Especially, technology orientation is the core competency of start-ups that affects price and quality management capabilities. However, technology and entrepreneurial orientation do not influence the outcome of business start-ups, but affect their quality management capabilities. Conclusions - This study confirms that the strategic orientation affects product price as well as quality management capabilities, to introduce new products and achieve successful outcomes. In conclusion, new business founders face the dilemma of trade-off between price and quality in the planning stage of new product development. In particular, price management capability directly affects the outcome. Therefore, price management is more important for a successful start-up than quality management. Especially, during the initial stages of starting up a new business, price management capability entails following the market-leading company, or price penetration strategy. In this stage, price management is dependent on the information from outside rather than on the founder's decision, and it directly affects sales performance and customer satisfaction. In contrast, quality management capability is directly related to the technology capability and market experience of founders. In this case, subjective and proactive decision making is required for differentiation and development of demand in the niche market, which does not directly influence the sales performance and customer satisfaction.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.91-106
• /
• 2022

This study targets four Soho fashion shopping malls that are operating successfully in the online fashion market. This study analyzed the entrepreneurship process by dividing it into three stages. The results of the case study are as follows. In the case of Company S, the founder, who had little work experience, started an e-commerce business with a sense of fashion and entrepreneurship. It is a contemporary, casual brand with competitive prices, design power, and diverse product assortment, and the business performance was achieved through data management and analysis and the diversification of distribution channels. In the case of Company B, the founder, who had little work experience, started a manufacturing and e-commerce business by leveraging their SNS network capabilities and entrepreneurial spirit. It is a contemporary fashion brand with product competitiveness of specific items and start-up characteristics, and performance was achieved through the establishment of brand identity and market expansion. Third, Company M and Company C are examples of Soho fashion shopping malls where the founders with more extensive work experience at the time of founding their respective start-ups focused on brand recognition as their core competitiveness. In the case of Company M, the apparel brand was launched with a wealth of experience and design spirit. It is a fashion designer brand that stands out for its sensibility, and the owner has achieved performance through various entrepreneurial activities that broaden the corporate horizon. Company C is a manufacturing and e-commerce brand that was started with design capabilities and an entrepreneurial spirit. It is a luxury fashion brand that focuses on emotional expression, and the outcomes, such as brand recognition and sales, were achieved through active customer management. The results of this study can be used as basic data in education for and research of Soho shopping malls and the prospective founders.

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