In recent years, venture start-ups based on state-of-the-art tech- nology or technology-intensive venture start-ups are under spotlight. Technology start-ups have the same characteristics as those of technology innovation type venture companies with h...
In recent years, venture start-ups based on state-of-the-art tech- nology or technology-intensive venture start-ups are under spotlight. Technology start-ups have the same characteristics as those of technology innovation type venture companies with high-risk high- yield business characteristics and achieve business performance and contribute to the development of national economy through creative ideas and technology innovation, yet excessive intensiveness on specific technology does not meet the needs and requirements of customers, and thereby they are neglected in the market. Thus the studies of market orientation as a new concept for securing competitive advantages and as well as a concept emphasizing the environmental factors and competition factors of market and requiring the response capabilities of the internal organization of businesses, are actively under way. Market orientation is composed of 3 concepts. First, customer orientation helps understand customer needs and provides suitable values, which will discover the value chain of potential customers and thereby increase customer satisfaction. Second, competitor orientation analyzes not only the strengths and weaknesses of competitors but also the competences and long-term strategies of competitors, which will in turn contribute to developing the competences to satisfy the needs of customers. Finally, the cooperation and coordination between internal departments secure significant competitiveness through the establishment of marketing strategies that should be achieved across the company not as individual departments for effectively adjusting and integrating human and material resources. In addition, public attention to the measures to effectively utilize the resources outside companies in an effort to overcome the uncertainty of business environment is increasing and thus it is essential to connect the resources of businesses with the same purposes for achieving strategic objectives through network, which will create competitive advantages and thereby leads to an increase of business performance.
This study, on the basis of these theoretical background and findings of the previous studies, conceptualized the technology innovation internally achieved by technology start-ups through their market-oriented characteristics and the sharing of external resources and communication with external resources, and measured business performance, such as development rate from technology development to production, success rate of new products, increase of sales occurrence rate, market share and so on, with performance indicators and the findings of this study can be summarized as follows.
First, market orientation has a significant positive effect on new product development, indicating it is essential to develop technology and products to respond to new changes and thereby occupy competitive advantages.
Second, network capability has a significant positive effect on the development of new products, indicating the network exchange intensity and diversity connect the resources between businesses, which will in turn help businesses create competitive advantages including development of new products.
Third, the development of new products by technology start-ups has a significant positive effect on business performance, indicating it is essential to enhance core competences for occupying the market through differentiating product and products quality from those of competitors, which will in turn lead to an increase of business performance.
The implications derived from this study can be summarized as follows.
The market orientation and network capability of technology start-ups enhance internal and external competitiveness for them to overcome their insufficient resources and unfavourable business environment in the early stage, which, as a factor to create competitive advantages, will contribute to promoting technological commercialization and thereby lead to stable and early growth of start-ups. Furthermore their concentration on the nature of consumers and consumer values in the course of business will achieve appropriate market orientation, which will help them have differentiated competitiveness under the creative economy environment.