창업기업의 지적자본이 혁신성과에 미치는 영향: 고객 참여의 직‧간접효과와 시장변동성의 조절효과를 중심으로

The digitalization of all industries and the subsequent start of the 4th Industrial Revolution are having an impact not only on changes within industries but also on the relationship between industries and their customers. As digital communication becomes more advanced, customers knowledge retention increases, greatly resolving the information asymmetry issue. As a result, customer demand rises and customer behavior reflects a pattern of more active participation. Joint innovation activities are being carried out to involve customers in corporate management activities as corporate innovation efforts to cope with rapid business environment changes become more crucial than ever. Academic research on customer participation activities is also being actively conducted. In order for startups experiencing resource limitations to create innovation, it is meaningful for startups’ innovation strategies to examine the relationship between intellectual capital, an internal resource, and the role of customers, an external resource, and the effects of market volatility, an environmental factor. In this study, I researched if customer participation has an impact on the inventive performance of start-ups and a moderating effect of market volatility. I also investigated whether intellectual capital has relevance in developing innovative performance from the perspective of start-ups. In order to analyse the direct and indirect effects of creative performance of customer participation by intellectual capital and type, 307 response data from executives and employees of start-ups during 7 years of establishment were analyzed. As a consequence, it was first established that start-up companies’ intellectual capital is a crucial condition for their success in terms of innovation. Second, intellectual capital as used in all customer engagement activities among start-up companies’ intellectual capital, demonstrating the value of each employee’s personal capital in knowledge-sharing and customer contact. Third, customer participation activities all had a substantial impact on market performance, demonstrating the value that can be created by gathering data that is relevant to the market as a result of customer participation. Fourth, it was discovered that start-up companies’ activities including customer participation in their intellectual capital and innovation performance had a major impact on their performance in the market and their ability to operate effectively. Lastly, it was found that customer participation activities function better and have a bigger impact when the market is more volatile. It is meaningful to suggest the need for customer value and customer utilization strategy as a cooperative innovation partner along with strategic management of intellectual capital to improve innovative performance of start-ups.