Paper Title
The Effectiveness of Korean Governmental Policies For Technology Start-Ups and Future Directions
Abstract
This research examines the effectiveness of Korean government policies for supporting technology start-ups.
We collected qualitative data by conducting interviews with 12 individuals, i.e. entrepreneurs and investors of technology
start-ups. We looked into the determinants of growth and constraints for start-up companies and diagnosed the current
policies for fostering technology start-ups. The results show that the growth factors include CEO’s capabilities,
organizational commitment and market orientations. On the other hand, the constraints include the difficulties of employing
expert labor, the influence of large companies, and lack of management knowledge and skills. In this context, the current
Korean governmental policies have limitations in dealing with blind investment in nascent entrepreneurs, entry barriers, lack
of expertise on technical evaluation, and lack of connection between R&D and business commercialization. These findings
suggest implications and directions for future policies as follows; first, the governmental policies need to expand support to
technology start-ups in each stage of growth. Especially, they need to pay attention to entrepreneurs, whose business models
are verified by the private sector. Second, technology valuation system should be upgraded. The valuation system is
necessary to concern the performance of each company involved in past governmental projects, rather than to use the same
standard, to reinforce the long-term ecosystem. Third, the policies should be improved in order to enhance the investment
climate for technology start-ups. It needs to connect each governmental project to others for flexible support. Fourth,
management education programs need to be developed for entrepreneurs in technology start-ups. Last, local infrastructures
should be evolved to foster technology start-ups.
Keywords— Technology Start-up; Governmental Policy; Effectiveness.