• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to classify individual startups by growth stage based on data-based quantitative criteria. This is to provide a basis for systematic support for government startups based on accurate statistics on the startup growth process. This startups were the TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) support company, which used a relatively reliable startup. We found seed money to complete MVP (Minimum Viable Product) within 1.5 years after establishment, verified PMF (Product-Market Fit) within 1 year, attracted Series A investment within 2.5 years after establishment, and successfully commercialized it. It attracted Series B investment for stable growth within 1.5 years (Series B investment within 4 years from start-up). The results of the study, the division of government programs that support stage-based startup commercialization, that is, within three years and within seven years of establishment, is significant to date. Three directions are suggested for future research. First, develop indicators for monitoring startup growth stages. Second, it continuously updates the annual changes and tracks the growth stages of individual startups. Third, we discover the successful growth law of technology-based startups by applying in-depth case analysis of successful startups to the model.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.235-252
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• 2015

The Korean government is building a virtuous cycle of startups and venture businesses for a dynamic, innovative economy. This ecosystem is made possible when a social environment that embraces tolerance and turn business failure into re-startups and challenging venture startups by outstanding entrepreneurs are present. Due to the government's efforts to promote start-ups and venture businesses, their number has been increasing annually, but the efforts to create a social environment for re-startups and establish a relevant institution have recently started. This study is aimed at providing policy direction for re-startups by getting policy implications after identifying the current status of domestic failed businessmen' re-startups based on previous researches on failed businessmen. This study also reviewed advanced nations' cases and made international comparison of re-startup policies. Before the startup culture that recognizes failure as the stage for success is formed as in the U.S., it is necessary to create a legal basis for continuously pushing for the rechallenge policy of EU's Small Business Act and establish and operate the private sector-driven revitalization council of SMEs in Japan. It is also necessary to consider the guarantee of failed businessmen' livelihood. If additional research and government policies are added to the conclusions made on the policy implications, this research will provide an in-depth insight for revitalizing domestic re-startup.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.169-183
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• 2019

Should a startup file for a patent subject to imitation in its quest to attract venture capital(VC) investors? Considering the US pharmaceutical biotechnology industry context, this paper attempts to answer this question by investigating the relations between the number of applied patents of startups, patent imitability, and the total amount of money the startups received as their first VC funding round. Data of 157 US-based pharmaceutical biotechnology startups founded in between 1995 and 2005 are analyzed. Empirical results from this study show that the number of applied patents is positively related to the total amount of money received at the time of the first funding round, and patent imitability is negatively related to the total amount of money received as first VC funding round. Nonetheless, the interaction term between the number of applied patents of startups and patent imitability came out as positive, raising interesting questions and implications for innovation-oriented startup entrepreneurs. The current study's empirical findings suggest that, in the pharmaceutical biotechnology sector, VC investors pay attention to the quantity and quality of the patents possessed by startups when they decide the level of funding. In particular, imitability of applied patents may not be a one-sided concept related to negative features such as the weak protectability of an invention. Rather, patent imitability may be a multi-facet element which also contains positive attractiveness of the startup's invention. Furthermore, it seems that the positive side of imitability can be augmented by the number of applied patents.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.127-138
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of each of the three sub-dimensional strategic orientations of technology orientation, customer orientation, and competitor orientation, on performance, targeting IT startups based on technology. and to analyze moderating effect of corporate social responsibility, which is more important to modern society. For the analysis, , The IT startups completed empirical research through path analysis after evaluating the suitability of measurement models and structural models using PLS-SEM for 94 companies less than 7 years that have moved in startup support institutions. As a result of the study, the three sub-dimensions of strategic orientation, technology orientation, customer orientation, and competitor orientation, all had a positive (+) effect on startups' performance. and the Corporate social responsibility orientation was verified as moderating the startup's strategic orientation and startups' performance. The results of this study imply the importance of corporate social responsibility orientation in the strategy setting of start-ups, as well as the direction of strategy-setting for technology-based startups for competitive advantage and long-term survival.

• Korean small business review
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.165-186
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• 2021

Startups are undergoing a change throughout the growth process of startups that appear in existing studies as they move away from the existing B2B or B2C frame and expand their target customer groups to O2O, C2C. In this regard, a new type of startup known as unicorns, a unicorn which has grown rapidly in a short period of time, is being created by successfully attracting government support and external investment in recognition of the potential value of the startup. This study examined the relationship between investment attraction and growth after founding for five representative unicorns in the U.S. and Korea. As a result, it was found that private investment in Korea is passive and defensive, and is attracted after the Series A stage, compared to the U.S., where the growth potential of the startup ecosystem is positively evaluated. In addition, it found that government's support policy throughout the startup's growth process is an abstract and comprehensive policy focusing on initial funding for startups. Therefore, it was suggested that the scope of government policies should be expanded to forster startups as unicorns, and that it is necessary to establish and implement differentiated support policies for each growth of the scale-up of startups. This study is significant in that it presented the criteria for the growth stage and support of startups as well as policy support for scale-up through practical case analysis of unicorns.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-21
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• 2023

This study is related to the performance of open innovation collaboration between startups and large corporations and financial institutions. In the life cycle of a typical company, the growth of a startup is difficult to predict. Startups that possess innovative technology but have only recently been established seek to verify their technology and capabilities by participating in open innovation with large corporations and financial institutions, and further strive to lay the foundation for corporate growth. However, if you approach it only as a theoretical coexistence plan, it will be viewed as a vague attempt from the startup's perspective. The purpose of this study is to differentiately verify the benefits of open innovation by analyzing the difference in sales growth of startups for the purpose of sales performance based on the open innovation participation of large companies and small and medium-sized companies(startups). In verifying this, the analysis was based on the sales results of the actual open innovation collaboration B2C model, and the difference was confirmed by comparing before and after collaboration. Here, the differentiation of the study was added by reflecting the corporate growth stage theory, a growth theory. When the corporate growth stage theory was excluded, it was confirmed that sales growth due to open innovation of startups was applied from the third month, and sales growth depending on participation was confirmed to be significant. On the other hand, when the corporate growth stage theory was applied, sales growth was not significant, but the difference in growth could be confirmed from the fourth month, and it was also confirmed in sales growth depending on participation. As a result, this study objectively confirms the effects that can be gained when startups participate in Open-innovation, and it is expected that Open-innovation led by large corporations, financial institutions, and government agencies will develop into a high-quality program environment.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.63-77
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• 2022

The importance of start-ups and venture companies in the Korean economy is growing. However, the successful growth of startups and venture companies are still challenging as 70% of startups fail within 5 years. A new perspective on innovation is essential to overcome the liability of newness and the liability of smallness in the existing market and obtain the competitive advantage. Recent phenomenon in the Korean startups ecosystem is the remarkable growth of unicorns and future unicorns. Their business models, types of business, and success cases serve as a good example. Neverthless, the process of unicorn and future unicorn startups making new industries and innovative business has poorly understood. In this paper, we first define 175 unicorns and future unicorn startups participating in the K-unicorn project as a unicorn group and analyze current trends of the group. Then the in-depth analyses of industry sectors are conducted. Specifically, focusing on the unicorn forming the new market, we examine the unicorn making the processes of industry category innovation through the business innovation model. Lastly, broadening the scope of the analysis to the unicorn group, policy implications in startups and venture ecosystem are suggested.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.19-31
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• 2022

Currently, the role of public accelerators in the domestic accelerator market is gradually expanding. Accordingly, in order to establish relevant policies properly, it is necessary to check the effect and validity of public accelerators' investment. However, there is no quantitative research conducted on domestic accelerators, using their financial data, as domestic accelerators have a short history and quantitative data on them are not disclosed. Therefore, this study conducted an empirical analysis with financial data of the startups that received equity investments from public accelerators to confirm the effect of public accelerators'investment in startups. A regression analysis was conducted with financial data from 112 startups that acquired investments from public accelerators in the period of 2016~2020. And the findings are as follows: First, it was found that the initial investment of public accelerators had an effect on the growth and profitability of startups. Specifically, it was confirmed that the initial investment of public accelerators had a positive (+) effect on sales growth rates and total asset growth rates, which are growth indicators. Second, it was found that the joint investment of public accelerators had a significant positive (+) effect on profit margin, an indicator of profitability, rather than on growth. Therefore, it is deemed that it will be a great force for growth if investment in the early-stage startups that showed significant investment results in this study is continuously expanded in combination with support projects, which are a strength of public accelerators. Since this study has confirmed the investment effect of public accelerators, it is deemed necessary to actively promote policies that direct public accelerators' projects toward improving the performance of startups through joint investment with the private sector and supplementing private accelerators' deficiencies.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

Strong Critics of' Moral Hazard, due to plummeting severely their stock price down and damage falling on plain investor, has been skyrocketed against massively and simultaneously exercising stock option right of C-Level members in Stock market listed startups right after IPO regardless of proper and legal process followed. Korean Financial Supervisory Board initiate new act of extending to apply'Lock-up Rule'even to stock option of core interest group after IPO. However, it will cause startups and venture more difficulties to recruit top level of talented staffs. This paper aims to propose RSU(Restricted Stock Unit) as alternative to breakthrough the current deadlock issue with respect to stock option controversy many startups facing. This paper to meet goal, first, including Korean introducing status of RSU, it clarify the concept of RSU by comparing exploration with Restricted Stock and define characteristic of RSU by comparing Stock Option. Second, it bring more effective ways of startups introducing RSU in Korea overcoming its limitations and challenges. Third, it carry out FGI to legal expert deeply involved of introducing RSU in Korea at policy domain. FGI focus on defining core challenging factors and their level of huddles of introducing RSU in Korea with proposing breakthrough policies to landing RSU softly in Korea. Fourth, it suggest valid policies of introducing and stabilizing RSU in Korea completely. This paper expect some contributions Korean startups and venture on finding market friendly right breakthrough out of stock option dilemma currently in.

• Journal of Venture Innovation
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.59-75
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• 2024

As the 4th Industrial Revolution progresses, the importance of startups was increasingly emphasized. Nevertheless, the five-year survival rate of Korean startups was lower than that of OECD countries. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between agile leadership, learning agility, and organizational performance of startups under the premise that organizational performance was most important for startups to achieve sustainable growth. For the empirical analysis, agile leadership was set as an independent variable, learning agility was set as a mediating variable, and organizational performance was set as a dependent variable. Data was collected from startup employees across the country, and 197 valid samples were selected for analysis. The empirical analysis used Process Macro 4.2. As a result of the empirical analysis, agile leadership was found to have a significant positive effect on startup organizational performance. Additionally, agile leadership had a positive (+) effect on learning agility, and learning agility had a positive (+) effect on startup organizational performance. As a result of analyzing the mediating effect of learning agility, learning agility was found to play a mediating role between agile leadership and organizational performance. Academically, these research results tested the usefulness of agile leadership suited to the startup culture among various leadership styles that can improve the organizational performance of startups. In practical terms, such agile leadership not only directly affects organizational performance, but also through the learning agility of startup employees. This means that by creating a culture of learning agility that encourages startup employees to continuously learn and adapt, startups can increase their chances of survival and success.