As technological start-up enterprises share the same concept with venture companies, the former can be referred to as the enterprises accomplishing creative innovation grounded on the spirit of entrepreneurship. The core value of technological start-u...
As technological start-up enterprises share the same concept with venture companies, the former can be referred to as the enterprises accomplishing creative innovation grounded on the spirit of entrepreneurship. The core value of technological start-up enterprises is the pursuit of promoting new combinations conducted by entrepreneurs, such as the development of new processes, new methods of utilizing resources, creation of new opportunities, etc., They also function as a nation's growth driving force.
As technological start-up enterprises share the same concept with venture companies, the former can be referred to as the enterprises accomplishing creative innovation grounded on the spirit of entrepreneurship. The core value of technological start-up enterprises is the pursuit of promoting new combinations conducted by entrepreneurs, such as the development of new processes, new methods of utilizing resources, creation of new opportunities, etc., They also function as a nation's growth driving force.
In Korea, technological start-up enterprises are, however, finding it difficult to obtain supportive funds for commercialization and comprehend essential market information. Such difficulties result in the untimely procurement of commerci- alization funds, deficiency of required manpower, hardship in launching domestic market, trouble in using the developed technology for commercialization, etc.
Previous researchers have analyzed the mechanism of technological innovation and the performance of enterprise from diverse points of view, including the process, type, scope, subject, classification and source of technological innovation.
There is no denying that the technological-orientation of an enterprise is indeed a central factor for the performance of enterprise. Yet the performance can only be maximized when it combines with specific market-oriented factors such as the creation and expansion of technological performance, as well as market and customer-based management.
The essence of the enterprise's continuous growth lies on the practice of strategic management which focuses on market and technology. From such a viewpoint, it is crucial to understand the intermediate effect between the technological- orientation and market-orientation, and managerial performance have upon each other.
Especially important is to clarify the intermediate effect that technological performance has among market-orientation, technological-orientation and performance of enterprise and suggest a way in which the performance of technological start-up enterprises can be enhanced. As such, the applicability of the government's policies, as well as the technological start-up enterprises' management strategies, can be improved.
Previous researches mostly focused on the relationship between technological- orientation and market-orientation, market-orientation and managerial performance, or technological innovation and managerial performance. Meanwhile, they did not fully observe the mutual relationship among the factors above with the performance of enterprise. In particular, positive research on the improvement of the performance of technological start-up enterprises and the effective use of government support funds, including the intermediate effects of technological- orientation, market-orientation, and technological performance of technological start-up enterprises upon the performance of enterprise, were somewhat lacking.
In light of this, the study looks at the influence that the level of technological- orientation and market-orientation of an enterprise receiving governmental support funds for raising technological start-up enterprises has on its technological performance, the intermediate effect of technological performance on the performance of enterprise, and the modulating effect of the integration of departments, such as the entrance barrier of the market, the communication between the members of the organization etc., on the performance of enterprise.
What is more, the study attempts to suggest a direction for the establishment of a strategy necessary for the growth and development of technological start-up enterprises, as well as the healthy rooting of enterprises receiving governmental funds.
The subject of this study were the CEOs of 1,239 companies which received government funding for the development of new technologies; which has been operating for more than three years; and has realized sales. To derive perceived variables, a preliminary survey was made. After deriving the lower factors of the variables, a questionnaire was conducted to collect 622 responses. Then, 55 unreliable responses were omitted and the remaining 567 responses were analyzed.
The validity of the questionnaire's composition and the development of the standard were verified by factor analysis. Furthermore, hierarchical regression analysis was used to understand the influence that the variables of entrance barrier and integration of departments had on the technological performance. Covariance structure modeling was used to analyze the causal relationship of the suggested research model. SPSS version 12.0 and AMOS 5.0 program were used as the statistic analysis programs to verify the hypothesis and analyze the appropriateness of the model.
Through verifying the research model and hypothesis, the study discovered the followings:
First, the market-orientation of technological start-up enterprises had a positive(+) influence on technological-orientation by promoting the establishment of the enterprise's foundation for technological innovation, as well as related activities.
Although raising internal power for technological innovation may be important for securing the enterprise's competitiveness, the above result shows that reinforcing the foundation for technological innovation through understanding the market and industrial trends is also very important.
In other words, technological start-up enterprises, which are usually small-sized, need to focus on collecting information related to the market and industry, establishing strategies to correspond to customers' needs, and commercializing their technological performances.
Second, the higher the level of market-orientation and technological-orientation of technological start-up enterprises became, the greater their performances turned out. This indicates that the effort to reflect the needs of the market and customer reinforces the foundation for internal technological innovation, which promotes activities for innovated procedures, products and services. These reinforced activities finally result in new technologies and products that reflect the needs of the market to show actual performances.
Third, in verifying the relationship between customer-orientation and the performance of enterprise, the lower factors that compose market-orientation, there was not any significant statistical result. As 78% of the CEOs of technological start-up enterprises have a background in research, this result seems to show the characteristic of researchers, knowing well about the importance of technological development, but failing to grasp the importance of understanding market trends or customers' needs.
Improved product quality through technological innovation, or improved ability on technological innovation through reinforced technological infrastructure may not always result in short-term sales growth. To boost sales, a service innovation that can meet the demands of the market and customers, such as a preliminary study on related technologies and products or a strategic approach to the market, is necessary.
Fourth, in verifying the intermediate effect of technological performance on market-orientation, technological-orientation, and the performance of enterprise, the intermediate effect of technological performance was clear between market- orientation and performance of enterprise, and technological-orientation and performance of enterprise. For technological performance(usually intangible assets such as patents, know-how, etc.,) to become the performance of enterprise, related elemental technologies must be combined for production.
Moreover, production technologies and facilities need to be established. However, enterprises with high technological performance, or technological dominance, can quickly turn their technology into a product(or introduce their product to the market in a short time). This means that the performance of such enterprise becomes higher. In other words, the improvement of technological start-up enterprises' performance relies mostly on the creation of technological performance, plus understanding the changes in the industry and market, establishing an internal foundation for commercializing technologies, renovating products and strategically managing intellectual properties.
Fifth, in verifying the modulating effect of the entrance barrier and integration of departments for the performance of enterprise on the market-orientation, technological-orientation, and technological performance of the technological start-up enterprises, the modulating effect of the entrance barrier turned out to be significant, while the modulating effect of the integration of departments among market-orientation, technological-orientation, and performance of enterprise didn't.
As 87.6% of the subjects in this study had less than 20 employees, the integration of departments, which is suppose to improve communication between the members of the enterprise, did not appear to have much meaning. The influence of the modulating variable, 'integration of departments,'will be studied in greater detail for enterprises with a professionalized system larger than a specified size.
The results of this study may be used to chart strategic and managerial directions for the purpose of accelerating technological innovation, an essential competitiveness factor for technological start-up enterprises. They can also be used to improve the efficiency of governmental funds supporting the growth of technology-oriented enterprises.