글로벌 기업 삼성 이건희 회장의 앙트러프러너십 연구

Abstract

Contemporary economic theories are mostly predicated on the premise that entrepreneurs think and behave rationally. This premise, however, overlooks the real significance of their social role. This article therefore defines the concept of entrepreneurship as an entrepreneur’s practice that can bring sustainable development by taking risks, facing challenges, seizing opportunities for early dominance through aggressive innovations, and finally creating consumer values. This paper attempts to shed light on such a form of entrepreneurship through the example of Samsung Group chairman, Kun-Hee Lee. Kun-Hee Lee, who has always been the first mover imbued with a sense of crisis, argued that Samsung should develop its products with an outlook for living on five to ten years later. This is why he ventured into non-memory products, taking the risk of trillions of Won deficit, eventually to make Samsung Electronics the world’s leading producer of semiconductors. Also, during the Asian currency crisis, he achieved success at media convergence by diversifying business rather than focusing on a few selected items; consequently, Samsung was ranked as the top global brand in electronics. Kun-Hee Lee's strong determination to change is shown in his plan for 3P Innovations: Personal Innovation, Process Innovation, and Product Innovation. First, the “Personal Innovation” means a radical reconstruction of his employees' life cycle and consciousness through the so-called Samsung Constitution, which prescribes codes of conduct such as humanity, morality, and etiquette, and through his adoption of working hours from 7 am to 4 pm. Second, the “Process Innovation” signifies his plan to improve work productivity by establishing Samsung's unique intranet such as My Single and by providing its overarching information sharing system through extended ERP functionality, including SCM, PDM, and CRM. Moreover, since his appointment as CEO of Samsung, he had put a great deal of effort into building the SPDM (Samsung Product Data Management) system, thereby unifying information to enhance process efficiency and save time. He also designed the ECIM system to enable each subsidiary of Samsung to share technology information, thereby contributing to Process Innovation of the whole Samsung Group. The ECIM was a major factor enabling the “Speed Management” which Samsung is proud of. Finally, the “Product Innovation” is a corollary of the aforesaid Process Innovation: the latter made possible the former. In particular, in 1994 Samsung’s design center was incorporated into the group’s headquarters in Seoul; this event ultimately enabled Samsung to manufacture original and competitive products well suited to execute its “World’s best” strategy. All the innovations were also possible because the sense of crisis following the 1997 currency crisis fostered a reform-friendly business environment. In this way, Kun-Hee Lee’s entrepreneurship can be summarized as challenge, innovation (change), and seizure of opportunities for early market dominance. His successful entrepreneurship was one crucial factor that made Samsung one of the top global brands just in 20 years, whereas it had been ranked merely as the third-largest conglomerate within the Korean business world in 1987. Through the example of Kun-Hee Lee, this paper thus demonstrates a research model for a new type of entrepreneurship and also leads Korean entrepreneurs to be well aware of the significance of their social role.