Recent changes in the economic conditions have caused enterprises to reduce their forces in size and create small units of businesses through outsourcing. At this very moment of retiring baby boomers and of the increasing one-man businesses by young e...
Recent changes in the economic conditions have caused enterprises to reduce their forces in size and create small units of businesses through outsourcing. At this very moment of retiring baby boomers and of the increasing one-man businesses by young entrepreneurs who are enormously rising in number, the business incubator is playing an important role in increasing the possibility of success of emerging businesses at their initial stage, among many other business support policies.
In an effort to understand the very factors affecting the performance of businesses entering business incubators, the study conducted an empirical analysis with certain variables, which include the characteristics and the entrepreneurship of new entrepreneurs, and the business support policies performed by the government.
Based on the theoretical background of previous studies, the characteristics of new entrepreneurs were defined in terms of demographical traits, such as age, educational background, and past work experience. The entrepreneurship of new entrepreneurs was defined as the combination of the sprit to innovate, the spirit to progress, and the spirit to take risks. The business support policies provided by the government included financial supports and the policies providing businesses with management and education, while we tried to define the business performance as the growth in the revenue and in the employment, each of which was given a corresponding assumption.
The purpose of this study lies in determining whether the personal characteristics of new entrepreneurs set under certain assumptions affect the performance of their businesses, whether the entrepreneurship of new entrepreneurs and the business support policies provided by the government affect the performance of the businesses, and whether the support services provided by business incubators will have a regulating effect in the relationship between the characteristics, the entrepreneurship, the business support policies and the business performance.
The study conducted a relevant survey whose subjects were business representatives entering business incubators operated by local self-governments, universities, and private enterprises. The survey was conducted from April 7, 2014 until May 10, in the form of paper-based direct survey. Among the total 158 surveys collected, 146 were adopted into the analysis.
The results of the analysis revealed the following conclusions:
First, the analysis on the characteristics of new entrepreneurs revealed that women, rather than men, affect the performance of their business, along with the past work experience.
Second, while the spirit to innovate and the spirit to progress of the entrepreneurship did not have significant influence on the performance of a business, the spirit to take risks was identified to affect the growth in revenue and employment of a business.
Third, the financial support provided by the government did not play a significant role in improving the performance of a business, whereas the policies that provided the businesses with management and education did affect the growth in revenue and employment of the businesses.
Finally, the support services provided by the business incubators did not show a regulating effect in the relationship between the personal characteristics and the business performance, while on the other hand, the non-material supports that the business incubators provided did show a regulating effect in the relationships between the sprit to take risks from the entrepreneurship and the business performance, and between the government policies that provided management and education, and the business performance.
As it may be concluded from this study, large reassessment for the various services currently being implemented will have to be made in order to improve the performance of the businesses entering the business incubators, and above all, a new incubating system beyond mere space renting, such as a specialized incubation center, will have to be introduced.