혁신지향적 벤처기업의 ESG 경영과 성과

In line with corporate sustainability and stakeholder demands, the importance of ESG management encompassing environment, society, and governance is increasing in venture companies. This study empirically analyzed the impact of the innovation orientation of venture companies on ESG management activities and management performance (financial performance, non-financial performance). A survey was conducted on 301 venture companies in the Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungcheong regions, and hypotheses were verified through a structural equation model. As a result of the analysis, the innovation orientation of venture companies had a positive effect on all dimensions of ESG management (environmental management, social responsibility management, and governance), and hypothesis H1~H3 was all accepted. In addition, innovation orientation had a positive effect on financial and non-financial performance, and hypothesis H10~H11 was also supported. Meanwhile, the effect of ESG management activities on management performance was statistically significant only for some factors. In other words, only ESG activities related to governance significantly increased financial performance, and only social responsibility activities showed the effect of increasing non-financial performance. These results suggest that in the case of venture companies, when they focus on areas such as governance improvement or social contribution activities under limited resources, they can achieve visible effects in terms of financial and non-financial performance, respectively. In short, this study empirically revealed that venture companies with high innovation orientation actively perform ESG management and, as a result, can increase corporate performance through some ESG activities. In addition, based on these empirical results, we suggested implications for ESG management strategies and policies of venture companies and discussed future research directions. This study is expected to contribute to the establishment of sustainable management strategies for venture companies and related academic research by clarifying the link between innovation orientation and ESG management.