창업보육 중소기업의 기술사업화에 관한 실증 연구

Business incubator (BI) is recognized as an efficient mechanism to promote new venture creation, technology commercialization and job creation. To become successful, tenant firms of BIs should have attractive business opportunities and required capabilities. This study focuses on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) supported by the government's business incubation project, and deals with technology development and commercialization processes of incubated SMEs those own ideas for new technology and product development. The purpose of this study is to analyze SMEs' capabilities and difficulties in technology commercialization and to propose government policies to effectively promote SMEs' commercialization. Based on previous literatures, this study developed a research framework. Data were collected from 89 SMEs, located or to be located in business incubators and financially supported by the government for the commercialization of new technologies. The questionnaire used in this study contains several items such as i) general company information (industry, location, CEO's age and education, and years of business operation), ii) SME's technology development capabilities (R&D capability, technology accumulation capability, and technology innovation system), iii) SME's technology commercialization capabilities (product commercialization capability, process/production capability, and marketing capability), iv) difficult business processes or areas faced during the technology commercialization process (company formation procedure, technology development and management, business planning, fund raising and finance, technology marketing, and organization management), and v) recognized importance of each business activity or capability in technology commercialization. Empirical results obtained from statistical analyses were summarized as follows. First, SMEs showed higher technology development capability than technology commercialization capability. Especially, R&D and technology accumulation capabilities were very high compared to product commercialization, process technology production, and marketing capabilities. Therefore government support to strengthen technology commercialization capabilities should be highlighted. Second, companies with an older CEO (40 years old and more) showed higher technology accumulation capability compared to those with a younger CEO. Firms' commercialization capabilities were not significantly different depending on the CEO's education level. Third, years of business operation of incubated SMEs did not affect firms' technology development and commercialization capabilities, although younger firms showed slightly higher capabilities in technology development compared to older firms. Fourth, SMEs pointed “fund raising and finance” as the most difficult business area and bottleneck in technology commercialization. “Technology marketing” and “organization management” were also very lacking areas in the process of commercialization. SMEs replied that these three areas are main bottlenecks and cannot be overcome without strong support from outside (including the government). Fifth, technology commercialization requires the integrated efforts of several business activities such as innovation, business and technology planning, marketing, financing and organization management. In this study, commercialization-related activities or capabilities were classified into eight categories, such as i) technology development and management, ii) strategic technology planning, iii) R&D project management, iv) core technology development, v) preparing a business plan, vi) financing, vii) marketing, and viii) organization management. The survey result shows that SMEs recognize “technology development and management” (such as corporate technology planning, technology commercialization, and core technology management) as the most important capability for successful commercialization. Furthermore, financial requirement analysis and investment planning, strategy formulation, R&D project planning, and business planning were also appeared as important activities and capabilities for commercialization. Based on the empirical study and findings, this study suggests following policy recommendations. First of all, financing was the key obstacle in technology commercialization. Therefore, securing several funding sources should be the priority policy measure. In addition to the government's financial supports, the private sector should take more active roles in early stage financing for SMEs through angels and venture capital investments. Government should make efforts for deregulation in the financial sector Second, the lack of planning and marketing capabilities can be ascribed to poor manpower. Government should support manpower training and recruiting through various training programs and subsidies for new hires. Long-term human resource development (HRD) planning should reflect the changing job market and emerging demands for new talents. Third, the roles of BIs should be strengthened from rent businesses (providing spaces) to integrated service providers. BIs should serve as technology commercialization platforms and make active networks with outside specialists. Especially, BI managers should have pivotal roles in technology commercialization and new venture growth and more incentives should be given to the specialists or businessmen with real business experiences to become BI managers. Fourth, this study showed that lacks in management capabilities (rather than technology capabilities) were more critical bottleneck in commercialization. Therefore executive management programs for small business CEOs should be promoted. In addition, undergraduate engineering students should have more chances to study management as recommended courses. Finally, integrated and flexible support mechanism should be devised to actively promote technology commercialization, from start-up and business planning to financing and marketing. Cooperation among several policy-implementing agencies is also needed. This study analyzes limited samples of SMEs and the finding cannot be necessarily generalized into different situations. With the environmental change from catch-up imitators to front runners, however, innovative SMEs in Korea really need planning and management capabilities for the prosperous future, and this study signals the importance of management knowledge, skills, and capabilities of small business CEOs.