• Korean small business review
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.73-88
• /
• 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 Venture Innovation
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.1-21
• /
• 2022

Entrepreneurship has been emphasized in social and national importance. However, survival rate of domestic startups is relatively low. Therefore, it is urgent to come up with a plan to increase the survival rate by improving the satisfaction level of early start-ups. In this study, we investigated the effect of start-up motivation, start-up competence, and start-up support policies of early start-up companies on start-up satisfaction and the moderating effect of social support. Startup motivation were divided into economic motivation and self-actualization motivation in detail. Start-up competence was divided into experience competency and marketing competency in detail. The start-up support policy was divided into start-up fund support and start-up consulting support. An empirical analysis was conducted by receiving online and offline questionnaires from 250 managers of early start-up companies within 7 years of founding. As a result, economic motivation, self-actualization motivation, experience competency, marketing competency, and start-up fund support had a significant positive (+) effect on start-up satisfaction. However, start-up consulting support did not have a significant effect. In addition, the size of the influence on startup Satisfaction was in the order of self-actualization motivation, experience competency, marketing competency, startup fund support, and economic motivation. The moderating effect of social support was found in economic motivation, self-actualization motivation, and experience competency. However, the moderating effect of marketing competency, start-up fund support, and start-up consulting support was not tested. Through the research results, the academic implications that self-actualization motivation and experience competency are key factors in enhancing start-up satisfaction were suggested. In addition, practical implications were suggested that it is necessary to improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education programs and entrepreneurship consulting support systems that can maximize the self-realization and experience capabilities of early entrepreneurs.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.56 no.12
• /
• pp.993-1003
• /
• 2023

Due to the increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the global mean temperature has risen by 1.1℃ compared to pre-industrial levels, and significant changes are expected in functioning of water supply systems. In this study, we assessed impacts of climate change and instreamflow management on water supply reliability in the Geum River basin, Korea. We proposed univariate climate response functions, where mean precipitation and potential evaporation were coupled as an explanatory variable, to assess impacts of climate stress on multiple water supply reliabilities. To this end, natural streamflows were generated in the 19 sub-basins with the conceptual GR6J model. Then, the simulated streamflows were input into the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model. The dynamic optimization by WEAP allowed us to assess water supply reliability against the 2020 water demand projections. Results showed that when minimizing the water shortage of the entire river basin under the 1991-2020 climate, water supply reliability was lowest in the Bocheongcheon among the sub-basins. In a scenario where the priority of instreamflow maintenance is adjusted to be the same as municipal and industrial water use, water supply reliability in the Bocheongcheon, Chogang, and Nonsancheon sub-basins significantly decreased. The stress tests with 325 sets of climate perturbations showed that water supply reliability in the three sub-basins considerably decreased under all the climate stresses, while the sub-basins connected to large infrastructures did not change significantly. When using the 2021-2050 climate projections with the stress test results, water supply reliability in the Geum River basin was expected to generally improve, but if the priority of instreamflow maintenance is increased, water shortage is expected to worsen in geographically isolated sub-basins. Here, we suggest that the climate response function can be established by a single explanatory variable to assess climate change impacts of many sub-basin's performance simultaneously.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.57-71
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception and demand of local youth and to find ways to support universities in order to create an youth start-up ecosystem. To this end, 509 young people living in Seoul were analyzed to recognize and demand young people in the region for youth start-ups, and to support universities. The findings are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing young people's perception of youth start-ups in the region, the "Youth Start-up Program" was analyzed the highest in terms of the demand for regional programs by university. In addition, there was a high perception that the image of youth startups in the region was "challenging" and "good for changing times." Second, after analyzing the demand for support for youth start-ups in the region, it appeared in the order of mentoring, start-up education, and creation of start-up spaces. And it showed different needs for different ages. Third, the results were derived from analysis of the demand for university support for the creation of a regional youth start-up ecosystem, the criteria for selecting local youth start-up support organizations, and the period of participation in local youth start-up support. Based on the results of the above research, the implications and suggestions of university support for the creation of a community of youth start-up ecosystem are as follows. First of all, it is necessary to develop and operate sustainable symbiosis mentoring programs focusing on university's infrastructure and regional symbiosis. Second, it is necessary to develop and utilize step-by-step systematic microlearning content based on the needs analysis of prospective youth start-ups. Third, it is necessary to form an open youth start-up base space for local residents in universities and link it with the start-up process inside and outside universities. The results of this study are expected to be used as basic data for establishing policies for supporting youth start-ups and establishing and operating strategies for supporting youth start-ups at universities.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.125-140
• /
• 2023

Careful preparation for a start-up can lower the risk of failure and create a successful business model. However, there are still challenges for middle-aged entrepreneurs, as start-up services and policies are often not readily accessible or fully utilized. Despite active research on middle-aged start-ups, previous studies have not delved deeply into the demographics of start-up preparation and various preparation behaviors. In response to this, a study was conducted to identify which start-up support services middle-aged entrepreneurs use, and how start-up preparation can be classified based on this. Data from 324 middle-aged tech start-up owners, based in Seoul and who started their businesses within the past 7 years, was collected and analyzed. The results showed that middle-aged entrepreneurs had moderate start-up preparation, with the greatest focus on the preparation period and the least focus on start-up education. Latent Profile Analysis revealed three groups of start-up preparation types among middle-aged entrepreneurs: "Overall Tribal Type," "Lack of Start-up Education Type," and "Comprehensive Preparation Type." BCH was performed on start-up satisfaction, start-up competence, fear of failure, access to start-up services, and support needs for middle-aged entrepreneurs based on the preparation type. The results showed that "Overall Tribal Type" had statistically lower start-up satisfaction, competence, and service accessibility compared to the other groups. Meanwhile, "Comprehensive Preparation Type" had a statistically lower fear of failure than the other types. "Overall Tribal Type" also had lower accessibility to middle-aged start-up services. All types had a high recognition of the need for support for specialized middle-aged start-ups. The findings highlight the need for more comprehensive support for middle-aged entrepreneurs. This could include expanding support projects to enhance their level of preparation, providing customized support based on their level of preparation, and improving the visibility and accessibility of start-up support services for middle-aged individuals. Additionally, specialized education that addresses the characteristics of middle-aged individuals should be provided.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.203-223
• /
• 2023

Recently, the platform industry is rapidly growing in the global market, and competition is intensifying at the same time. Therefore, in order for domestic platform companies to have global competitiveness in the platform market, it is necessary to study the platform business ecosystem and success factors. However, most of the recent platform-related studies have been theoretical studies on the characteristics of platform business status analysis, platform economy, and indirect network externalities of platforms. Therefore, this study comprehensively analyzed the success factors of Silicon Valley's business ecosystem proposed in previous studies, and at the same time analyzed the success factors extracted from stakeholders in the actual Silicon Valley platform business ecosystem. And based on these factors, an IPA analysis was conducted as a way to propose a success plan to stakeholders in the platform business ecosystem. As a result of the analysis, among the success factors collected through previous studies, manpower, capital, and challenge culture were identified as factors that are relatively well maintained in both importance and satisfaction in Silicon Valley. In the end, it can be seen that the creation of an environment and culture in which Silicon Valley can use it to challenge itself based on excellent human resources and abundant capital contributes the most to the success of Silicon Valley's platform business. On the other hand, although it is of high importance to Silicon Valley's platform corporate ecosystem, the factors that show relatively low satisfaction among stakeholders are 'learning and benchmarking among active companies' and 'strong ties and cooperation between members', and it is analyzed that interest and effort are needed to strengthen these factors in the future. Finally, the systems and policies necessary for market autonomous competition, 'business support service industry', 'name value', and 'spin-off start-up' were important factors in literature research, but the importance and satisfaction of these factors were lowered due to changes in the times and environment. This study has academic implications in that it comprehensively analyzes the success factors of Silicon Valley's business ecosystem proposed in previous studies, and at the same time analyzes the success factors extracted from stakeholders in the actual Silicon Valley platform business ecosystem. In addition, there is another academic implications that importance and satisfaction were simultaneously examined through IPA analysis based on these various extracted factors. As for academic implications, it is meaningful in that it contributed to the formation of the domestic platform ecosystem by providing the government and companies with concrete information on the success factors of the platform business ecosystem and the theoretical grounds for the growth of domestic platform businesses.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.57-70
• /
• 2023

The investigation delved into 457 pieces of scholarly work, encompassing articles, published theses, and dissertations from the National Research Foundation of Korea, spanning the period of the 1997 IMF financial crisis up to 2022. The materials were sourced using terms such as 'angel investment', 'angel investor', and 'angel investment attraction'. The initial phase involved filtering out redundant entries from the preliminary collection of 267 works, leaving aside pieces that didn't pertain directly to angel investment as indicated in their abstracts. The next stage of the analysis involved a more rigorous selection process. Out of 43 papers earmarked in the preceding cut, only 32 were chosen. The criteria for this focused on the exclusion of conference presentations, articles that were either not submitted or inconclusive, and those that duplicated content under different titles. The final selection of 32 papers underwent a thorough systematic literature review. These documents, all pertinent to angel investment in South Korea, were scrutinized under five distinct categories: 1) publication year, 2) themes of research, 3) strategies employed in the studies, 4) participants involved in the research, and 5) methods of research utilized. This meticulous process illuminated the existing landscape of angel investment studies within Korea. Moreover, this study pinpointed gaps in the current body of research, offering guidance on future scholarly directions and proposing social scientific theories to further enrich the field of angel investment studies and analysis also seeks to pinpoint which areas require additional exploration to energize the field of angel investment moving forward. Through a comprehensive review of literature, this research intends to validate the establishment of future research trajectories and pinpoint areas that are currently and relatively underexplored in Korea's angel investment research stream. This study revealed that current research on domestic angel investment is concentrated on several areas: 1) the traits of angel investors, 2) the motivations behind angel investing, 3) startup ventures, 4) relevant institutions and policies, and 5) the various forms of angel investments. It was determined that there is a need to broaden the scope of research to aid in enhancing and stimulating the scale of domestic angel investing. This includes research into performance analysis of angel investments and detailed case studies in the field. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of diversifying research efforts. Instead of solely focusing on specific factors like investment types, startups, accelerators, venture capital, and regulatory frameworks, there is a call for research that explores a variety of associated variables. These include aspects related to crowdfunding and return on investment in the context of angel investing, ensuring a more holistic approach to research in this domain. Specifically, there's a clear need for more detailed studies focusing on the relationships with variables that serve as dependent variables influencing the outcomes of angel investments. Moreover, it's essential to invigorate both qualitative and quantitative research that delves into the theoretical framework from multiple perspectives. This involves analyzing the structure of variables that have an impact on angel investments and the decisions surrounding these investments, thereby enriching the theoretical foundation of this field. Finally, we presented the direction of development for future research by confirming that the effect on the completeness of the business plan is high or low depending on the satisfaction of the entrepreneurs in addition to the components.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.465-486
• /
• 2024

The purpose of this study is to identify the current status of infrastructure and services for analyzing research data for research data managers at government-funded research institutions under the National Research Council for Science and Technology (NST) who will actually use the Korea Research Data Commons (KRDC), which is being developed by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and to investigate the perceptions of research data managers related to the establishment of KRDC system. For the study, we conducted a survey targeting 24 government-funded research institutes, excluding KISTI, and interviewed research data managers from 9 of the 15 institutions surveyed who agreed to follow-up interviews. As a result of the survey, most institutions were providing related services, and their willingness to introduce an integrated analysis framework for the use of research data and provide a system for using externally released analysis software was also high. Meanwhile, when we investigated the external disclosure status of each institution's analysis services through follow-up interviews, only a minimal number of institutions were disclosing them to the outside world. The findings reveal that there is a demand to utilize analysis infrastructure and services when provided through the framework. However, it is difficult to disclose and share the analysis resources held by each organization. In order to establish the KRDC system, it is essential to share research sites' analysis infrastructure and services, and in addition, changes in the perception of research sites and institutional changes are necessary. Furthermore, there is a need to establish policies that consider the system's convenience, security, and compensation system raised in the follow-up interviews.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.246-262
• /
• 2024

The survey conducted from 2018 to 2020 aimed to investigate the changes in fish fauna and community characteristics in the upper reaches of the Seomgang River, Korea. During the survey period, 35 sites were selected, resulting in the collection of 7,817 fish belonging to 12 families and 40 species. The dominant species was Zacco koreanus, with a relative abundance of 34.5%, followed by Z. platypus at 28.7%. Other significant species included Rhynchocypris oxycephalus (10.2%), Pungtungia herzi (5.3%), and Squalidus gracilis majimae (4.3%). Notably, four protected species - Acheilognathus signifer, Gobiobotia brevibarba, and Cottus koreanus, designated as class II endangered wildlife by the Ministry of Environment- were identified. These species predominantly inhabit the middle and lower reaches, except for Gobiobotia brevibarba, which is found in the upper reaches. Nineteen species, accounting for a 47.5% endemism rate, were endemic to Korea. The study also noted the presence of one climate-sensitive species, Cottus koreanus, and two exotic species, Carassius cuvieri and Micropterus salmoides. Community analysis indicated a trend of decreasing dominance and increasing diversity and richness from upstream to downstream, with a distinct division into uppermost reaches, upper reaches, middle and lower reaches, and lakes. The construction of the Hwaseong Dam has had a significant direct and indirect impact on the fish community. The habitat and abundance of endangered species such as R. pseudosericeus, A. signifer, and G. brevibarba decreased dramatically immediately after the dam's construction, transforming the submerged area from lotic to lentic environments. Approximately 20 years later, the habitats have stabilized, leading to an increase in the fish population and a recovery of the previously diminished endangered species. The river health (FAI) was also evaluated, with 27 sites rated as very good (A), seven as good (B), and one as fair (C). However, endangered species such as A. signifer continue to face threats from dam and river construction, while C. Koreanus has experienced a severe population decline due to river works. Additionally, the presence of the ecosystem-disrupting species M. salmoides in Hwaseong Lake raises concerns. To ensure a stable habitat for fish in the upper reaches of the Seomgang River, it is crucial to avoid indiscriminate river construction, urgently implement restoration policies for endangered species such as A. signifer, and develop management strategies to control the spread of invasive species such as bass.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.319-333
• /
• 2024

Background: This study aims to identify the factors that influence the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) for the elderly living alone and to discuss how to manage CHE for the elderly living alone. Methods: This study utilizes 6th (2016), 7th (2018), and 8th (2020) data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging to identify the incidence rate of CHE among the elderly living alone and conducts a panel logit analysis. The dependent variable is the incidence of CHE (thresholds: 10%, 20%, 30%), and the independent variables include demographic factors (gender, age group, region), socioeconomic factors (education level, economic activity status, income quintile, financial support rate from children), health-related factors (subjective health status, regular exercise, smoking, drinking, number of chronic diseases), and healthcare coverage factors (type of health insurance, private health insurance). Results: Descriptive statistics classified by gender show that female elderly living alone are more vulnerable than male elderly living alone in terms of disease prevalence and socioeconomic status. In addition, the incidence of CHE is higher for elderly women living alone than for elderly men living alone across all thresholds. The main results of the panel logit analysis show that higher education, income quintile, and financial support rate from children are associated with lower odds of CHE, while poorer subjective health and a higher number of chronic diseases are associated with higher odds of CHE. Medical aid recipients are less likely to incur CHE than those covered by national health insurance. Conclusion: The implications of this study are as follows. First, vulnerable elderly living alone with multiple chronic diseases and low income and education levels are more likely to incur CHE. Second, it is necessary to review policies such as a CHE support program and chronic disease management programs focused on vulnerable elderly individuals living alone. Third, the CHE support program should be operated in a patient-centered manner, with consideration given to a customized system for selecting and supporting elderly individuals living alone who are in need.