지속가능한 창업을 위한 컨설팅 성공 방정식: 소상공인과 컨설턴트의 상호작용에 관한 실증적 분석

Small business owners constitute the structural foundation of the national economy, accounting for 86.5% of all business entities. However, they are currently facing a severe crisis, with one million business closures recorded in 2024. In response, the government has continuously expanded consulting support for small businesses; however, concerns have persistently been raised regarding consulting performance that fails to translate into customer satisfaction in the field. This study originates from the recognition that despite the quantitative expansion of government consulting support for small business owners, satisfaction levels exhibit extreme variance across individual consulting engagements. To identify the mechanism underlying this variance in satisfaction, this study views consulting not as a unilateral service provision by consultants, but as a value co-creation process through interaction between both parties, and aims to empirically demonstrate how the characteristics of both sides interact to determine performance outcomes. This study conceptualizes consulting as a service and constructed an integrated model with SERVQUAL as the independent variable, consulting satisfaction as the mediating variable, and intention to continue use as the dependent variable. Consultant competency (ability, knowledge, attitude) and small business owner engagement (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) were included as moderating variables. Using PROCESS macro, 30 moderating effect combinations were tested with 172 small business owners who experienced consulting within the past two years. The results confirmed that while assurance serves merely as a hygiene factor verifying minimum qualifications, reliability and attitude function as motivators that enhance satisfaction. Furthermore, cognitive and behavioral engagement showed significant moderating effects, whereas emotional engagementexhibited no moderating effect, confirming that small business owners perceive consulting as a practical investment rather than emotional consumption. This study constructed an integrated model incorporating consultant competency and small business owner engagement as moderating variables using the SERVQUAL framework, and empirically supported the value co-creation perspective through interaction in the small business consulting context. From a practical standpoint, this study proposes a customer satisfaction-centered consultant evaluation system, suggests service behavior guidelines for consultants in the field, and presents customized strategies by type for high-engagement small business owners.