The Limits of Rapid Growth in an Embedded Market: An Anthropological Account of the Cultures and Corporate Governance of a Venture Firm in Korea

This paper delineates the rise and fall of a Korean IT venture firm in the 1990s and early 2000s. Rapid growth of an IT firm symbolized the dreams of unrecognized engineering talents in Korean society without much individual remunerations within large organizations, but the culturally embedded market with much expectation of rebates, hierarchical business partnership, and egalitarian ethos made it difficult to protect and sustain their aspirations. Employee Stock Owners’ Co-operative, suggested as an alternative to militant labor union and a new way of financial remuneration to employees, is exam-ined in detail to see how cultural values are mobilized to account for different interpretations of the reality in the turbulent lifecourse of one courageous entrepreneurial firm.