• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-46
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• 2019

Even though Korea is strengthening the support for startups due to the limitations of growth policies focusing on large companies, the survival rate of startups is very low, so that there should be more efforts to increase the survival rate of startups. As the existing startup support institutions have provided only fragmentary supports to startups, it would be necessary to have the comprehensive support institutions. As an alternative, the accelerator providing the comprehensive support such as spatial support, education, mentoring, networking, seed investment, and connection for follow-up investment to the initial startups was legalized in Korea of 2016, based on the registration system. Currently, within less than two year from then, there have been much interest in it enough to have about 136 registered accelerators. In the United States, the accelerator was introduced more than ten years ago. In Korea, however, it is still in the initial stage, so that the researches or social consensus on the accelerator are not sufficient. Thus, this study aims to suggest the measures for the development of accelerator and the consensus on the decision making for the selection of accelerator of startups, by researching which parts are considered when startups in the accelerator stage select the accelerator. As a result of the empirical analysis, the factor that has the greatest influence on decision making factors when startup chooses an accelerator was the subsequent investment attraction. This can be explained to the accelerator as desired, considering the factor that the startup of the initial stage places the most importance on growth as investment. We hope that these research results will be sustainable in future research related to accelerators, in hopes that it will be useful for establishing accelerator policies for domestic startups and direction for revitalizing related industries.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.285-308
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• 2020

This paper analyzes the factors which affect University professors and students on their startup activities, such as (a) University factors: their industrial cooperation organization and systems, their resources for startup support, their knowledge assets, and (b) socioeconomic characteristics in which Universities are located. We used the data and information from the University Information System and the National Statistical Office Publication to analyze 157 4-year Universities in Korea who uploaded their startup-related information on the system. Our analysis shows that Universities' systems, such as the term for Professors' leave of absence for startup activities, and their amount of knowledge assets affect the number of Professor startups significantly positively, while there is no significant effect on their performance, in terms of sales, from those factors, except for the amount of patents that the University has. In the meantime, the number of practical startup courses, the number of startup clubs, and the number of professor startups in the University affect the number of student startups, while the size of industrial cooperation body, the amount of knowledge asset, the area's socioeconomic characteristics didn't affect their performance. The result implies that we need to take different approaches to boost University professor startups and their student startups: better system and more knowledge for the former, more practical courses and programs for the latter. Further study is needed to get a more robust result because this analysis used only one year data, and personal trait data was not included in the analysis. A panel data analysis for several years is recommended for further research.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.141-156
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• 2023

The advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), along with the expansion of government and private investment in startup discovery and funding, has led to the emergence of startups seeking to generate outstanding results based on innovative ideas. As successful startups serve as role models, the number of aspiring entrepreneurs preparing to launch their own startups continues to increase. However, unlike entrepreneurs who challenge themselves with serial entrepreneurship after experiencing success, early-stage startups face various challenges such as team building, technology development, and fundraising. Accelerators play a dual role of mentor and investor by providing education, mentoring, consulting, network connection, and initial investment activities to help startups overcome various challenges they face and facilitate their growth. This study investigated whether there is a correlation between the characteristics of startups and their entrepreneurial performance, and analyzed whether accelerators mediate the relationship between startup characteristics and entrepreneurial performance. A total of 11 hypotheses were proposed, and a survey was conducted on 302 startup founders and employees located across the country, including the metropolitan area, for empirical research. SPSS 23.0 and Amos 23.0 were used for statistical analysis. Through this study, it was found that factors such as innovation, organizational culture, financial characteristics, and learning orientation among the characteristics of startups, rather than having a direct impact on entrepreneurial performance, are linked to entrepreneurial performance through the role of accelerators. By analyzing the impact factors of startup characteristics on entrepreneurial performance, this study presents research on the role of accelerators and provides institutional improvements. It is expected to contribute to the expansion of investment and differentiated acceleration programs, enabling startups to seize the market and grow stably in the market.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.45-55
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• 2022

Accelerator is a private investment institution that provides startups with comprehensive solutions to solve various difficulties such as startup facilities, funds, commercialization, securing a market etc. In addition to the role of an investor as a new startup support model, accelerators have contributed much to improvement of business ability of startups through intensive mentoring. Considering that previous studies gave weight to the determinants of investment from the perspective of investors, this study made a comparative analysis on the relative importance of determinants of investment in startups among accelerators, investors and entrepreneurs through the method of AHP. Results show that accelerators and investors regard "managerial characteristics" of startups as of the highest importance, whereas entrepreneurs think that "market characteristics" of startups are the most important. The result stems from an empirical judgment from the perspective of investors that success of startups depends on the ability of entrepreneur, and it is considered that investors evaluated marketability of startups as the most important factor in consideration of investment payback period. The result is similar to the result of previous studies on the determinants of investment determinants of angel investors and venture capitals. This paper is expected to make a contribution to the advancement of investment decision-making model for accelerators to discover startups with high possibility to grow and achieve more in incubation and investment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.109-121
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• 2024

This paper adopts a resource-based approach to analyze why some universities have a greater number of faculty startups, and how this impacts on performance, in terms of indictors such as the number of employees and revenue sales. More specifically, we propose 9 hypotheses which link institutional resources to faculty startups and their performance, and compare 5 different groups of university resources for cross-college variation, using data from 134 South Korean four-year universities from 2017 to 2020. We find that the institutional factors impacting on performance of faculty startups differ from other categories of startups. The results show that it is important for universities to provide a more favorable environment, incorporating more flexible personnel policies and accompanying startup support infrastructure, for faculty startups, whilest it is more effective to have more financial resources and intellectual property for other categories of startups. Our findings also indicate that university technology-holding company and technology transfer programs are crucial to increase the number of faculty startups and their performance. Our analysis results have implications for both university and government policy-makers, endeavoring to facilitate higher particaption of professors in startup formation and ultimate commercialization of associated teachnologies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.131-144
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• 2021

The organizational ambidexterity is an organizational strategy designed to pursue exploration activities to seize new opportunities and exploitation activities to efficiently use resources. Most of these ambidextrous structures have been studied for large corporations with slack resources, and there are still not many studies on the necessity of an ambidextrous structure for startups with relatively low-level resources. However, recently, the startup ecosystem is being advanced globally, and the amount of VC investment is rapidly increasing. This is a time when a lot of venture fund is invested in startups and a startup-friendly environment for rapid growth is created. This is the time to discuss the necessity and applicability of an ambidextrous organizational structure for startups. Therefore, this study conducted a hypothesis test whether the importance and necessity of balance that startups solving market problems with new ideas and utilizing accumulated resources have. To conduct this study, we analyzed 140 startups data gathered from the survey and the moderation effect was also analyzed. As a result of the study, it was verified that the balance of startup exploration and exploitation had a significant effect on startup performance, and the moderating effect of environmental dynamics was found to have a significant effect on the relationship with non-financial performance. Therefore, for startups with insufficient resources, it was concluded that the surplus resources generated in the process of a firm's growth should be effectively utilized and the balance between exploration and exploitation should be balanced from the initial stage of searching for a new business. In other words, it was confirmed that it is important for continuous growth and survival to seek the structure of an ambidextrous organization in order to internalize a mechanism that enables startups to pursue both effectiveness and efficiency in the long term. This study suggests a strategic direction for the growth of startups from the perspective of organizational structure. We expect that this meaningful results on the relationship between the ambidextrous capabilities of startups and performance contribute to the growth of startups in the rapidly growing startup venture environment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-44
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• 2020

Accelerators that invest in early startups, as well as nursery and overall management, have recently emerged as "key players" in the startup ecosystem. This can be proved by the case where the number of domestic accelerators registered in the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups has recently reached 208. Accelerators provide the necessary education for early-stage companies, including guidance for a certain period of time, and support startups in ways such as demo days to attract subsequent investment after the seed investment. There is not much research in academia about what factors impact on these accelerators when making investment decisions at the time of seed investment. In this study, we checked the meaning and function of the accelerator and tried to analyze what factors affect on accelerators when making a decision to invest in startups. The research method is based on a literature survey of previous studies on investment decision-making factors of venture capital and angel investors, and a lens model and judgment analysis method through empirical research targeting 43 accelerator investment decision-makers. Empirical analysis shows that accelerators have three of the key factors to consider when choosing the first startup to invest and educate; entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial traits, their product and service expertise and a potential return on success. This will provide an opportunity for early startups to gain strategic access to accelerators when they need money or need a structured educational program. Also, the results obtained through this research will be a kind of guideline for startups to attract accelerators' investment. The significance of this study is that discriminatory evidence was presented on the accelerator determinants of investment, and it would be highly suggestive to startups and related public institutions.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.27-38
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to find out common investment decision factors for CVC's invested technology-based startups and analyze them. We examined 17 CVCs that invested in technology startups for three years and six months from 2015 to June 2018. As a result, the final 9 CVCs that can be used in this study were confirmed and 188 companies were analyzed. This study was conducted as a case study to propose and demonstrate CVC investment objectives and investment decision factors analysis model. The results of this study are as follows. First, CVC focused on strengthening investment. Second, In 2015, Invested in an average of 19 months of technology-based startups. In recent years, we invested in 36 months of proven technology-based startups. Thirdly, ICT service was the main business type of the invested startups. Fourth, the investors were concentrated on the stage of Series A~B. It is observed that CVC investment determinants have a significant impact on product or service and parent company relations. In addition, it was found that factors such as innovation, business planning competency, enterprising, strategic competency, leadership, and opportunity recognition competency were influential factors for the startups of invested companies and it was found that these factors are important for CVC investment decision. Understanding of CVC investment determinants presented in this study is based on the establishment of the investment process of the investee, entrepreneurship and management education program. The results of this study can be applied to the selection of excellent startups, entrepreneurship education programs, mentoring, development of coaching guidelines, and establishment of investment process of other investment institutions when investing in CVC.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.81-94
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• 2020

Based on innovative technologies and new start-up ideas, startups have been actively researched on the entrepreneurship needed to strengthen the organization's capabilities and generate results in the start-up process. This study studied the entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of startups in the Philippines and the financial and non-financial performance of enterprises. This study carried out not only the entrepreneurial orientation to the performance of Filipino startups but also the role of social capital as parameters in the performance of enterprises. The empirical research was completed for 93 Philippine startups and the suitability of the research model was evaluated with a PLS-based structural equation model. The results of the study first confirmed that the enterprise orientation of Philippine startups has a positive impact on both financial and non-financial performance of the enterprises. Second, the entrepreneurial orientation of Philippine startups has been shown to have a positive effect on both the structural, cognitive and relational dimensions of social capital. Third, it was found that the relevant dimensions of social capital mediated both the corporate orientation and the relationship between the financial and non-financial performance of the entity. Entrepreneurial orientation has been confirmed to be directly or indirectly affecting the performance of startups through social capital. These findings reaffirmed that entrepreneurial orientation is still a valid important factor in developing countries as well as in countries such as Korea and the United States. Based on this study, we have identified the need for research from a more integrated perspective, such as the concept of strategic orientation. Finally, practical implications were presented to reflect the findings analyzed.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.135-165
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• 2020

This study aimed to examine relationships between founders' entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior, team boundary spanning, and perceived performance in early-stage startups. The following results were recorded: (i) the indirect effects of entrepreneurial leadership on perceived performance via team learning behavior were statistically significant (β=.309, p<.05). (ii) relationships between team learning behavior and perceived performance were strengthened by team boundary spanning behavior (β=.259, p<.05). In this study, three practical implications are provided as follows: (i) startups need to seek team learning readiness and external learning stimulus to facilitate generative and transformative team learning; (ii) accelerators need to develop an entrepreneurial leadership program for founders; and (iii) startups need to explore external information by interacting with investors, R&D institutions, and other startups to strengthen the impact of team learning behavior on performance. Furthermore, two directions for future research are suggested as follows: (i) future researchers need to test causal relationships between entrepreneurial leadership and team learning behavior based on a newly designed time-series measurement plan; (ii) the actual effects of entrepreneurial leadership, team learning behavior and team boundary spanning on financial performance need to be tested two or three years later when the financial performance of early-stage startups usually becomes evident.