종단적 자료를 활용한 벤처기업의 생존 및 성장 영향요인에 관한 실증연구

Abstract

Few attempts have been made to investigate the influences of and differences between survival and growth factors from an integrated perspective, whereas prior research has focused on the determinants of survival or growth respectively for new SMEs and venture firms. Do determinant factors of a firm's survival also play an identical role in the growth of the firm? Conversely, are there factors which influence positively on a firm's survival or deter a firm from growth?Using a group of more than 8,000 samples, we examined empirically whether determinant factors of survival and growth are identical in ventures. First of all, we analyzed survival factors by investigating whether firms in surveys conducted by the Small and Medium Business Administration in 2003 and 2004 survived until 2008. We investigated growth factors by analyzing the growth of those surviving venture firms during the four years after the previous surveys. This distinctive approach provided us with a new perspective to understand the determinant factors of growth. The factors we considered influencing survival and growth of venture firms were categorized based on firms’ characteristics, such as organization, manager, technology, marketing and finance. Size and age of firms were the measures of organizational characteristics while ownership of founder and knowledge level of CEOs were those of managers characteristics. The capacity for technological innovation and investment in R&D were the proxy for assessing technological capabilities. Marketing characteristics were measured in terms of networking capacity with large firms and the level of globalization. Finally we used profitability and debt to equity ratio to assess financial characteristics. We analyzed the determinants of survival using binary logit model, where we divided sample firms into two categories, survival group and extinct group. Survival factors were sifted out through characteristics that were common to currently existing firms at the time of the 2003/2004 surveys. We investigated the determinant factors of growth using multiple regression model, where we computed growth rate of sales for each venture firm between 2003 and 2007, and used the growth rates as a dependent variable in regression analysis. Determinant factors influencing growth of venture firms were analyzed based on the firm characteristics mentioned above. The empirical results are summarized as follows. First of all, the hypothesis with regard to organizational characteristics, was partly supported, in that their effects on survival and growth were contrary to each other. We measured organizational characteristics by business history as well as size of firms using total assets and the number of employees. Business history measured by the number of years since incorporation, in particular, has a positive relationship on survival while it has a negative effect on growth rate in line with the hypothesis. Since start-up companies have the most considerable disadvantages in their early stages, chances of survival are substantially increased as business years roll on. The growth rate, meanwhile, slows down as years roll on, since start-up companies diverge from enterprising management in their early stage and intend to pursue stability. The size of ventures turns out to have a positive effect on survival, offsetting the disadvantages of startup by benefits from economies of scale, although size does not have a significant relationship with growth rate. Manager characteristics mostly work as a survival and growth factor. Founder ownership which is closely related to agency cost also turns out to be a survival and growth factor with statistical significance. It is interpreted as that founder ownership has a positive impact since potential agency cost between owner and manager would decrease when a founder owns and runs a venture. Academic background as a proxy for knowledge level of CEO is a survival factor, albeit statistically insignificant as a growth factor. We understand that the higher knowledge level a manager has, the more embedded technology and knowledge he or she is likely to have. High knowledge level would enhance a firm's viability in the face of shocks in the external environment as shown in prior research. The empirical result also indicates that the capacity for technology innovation measured by the number of registered patents and patent applications turns out to have a positive effect on survival and a negative effect on growth. Although this study has the limitation that we narrowed the capacity for technology innovation down to the number of patents, the findings on growth rate is surprisingly different from our expectation beforehand. Meanwhile, the growth of ventures is positively related to R&D investment while R&D investment is not related to survival. It occasionally happens in the field that R&D investment adds to the burden on cash flow and rather threatens a firm's survival when the investment does not lead to sales. Therefore, further research may need to distinguish R&D investment by sales. The impact of marketing on the survival and growth of venture firms was verified based on the networking capacity with large firms and the level of globalization. Networking capacity with large firms measured by weighted supply contracts did not work as a growth factor but worked as a survival factor. It seemed that supply contracts to big enterprises provided only stable sales for survival but they guaranteed neither high return for growth nor rapid sales growth. Globalization was measured by the experience of foreign market entry, where we expected that the level of globalization would have positive impact on growth since venture firms which entered overseas market would have new market opportunities. The empirical result, however, did not present a statistically significant relationship between growth and the level of globalization of venture firms. Finally, it is hypothesized that financial characteristics such as profitability and debt to equity ratio would influence the survival of venture firms. The deficiency of financial resources was expected to become a risk factor for the survival of venture firms, when firms did not have sizable internal capital and could not utilize external capital market. Debt to equity ratio is negatively related to survival while profitability has no significant effect on it. High debt to equity ratio might lead to financial distress threatening survival since the increased burden of interest payments might aggravate cashflows and high debt to equity ratio made it difficult to find new sources of finance. Prior research has separated survival factors and growth factors without considering any linkage between them. This study is meaningful in that we empirically verified survival factors and growth factors intended for a group of ventures with an integrated approach. We started the research from the question of whether factors contributing to survival of firms would also have identical impact on growth as well. Thus we examined deterministic factors for survival and growth and hypothesized the relationship between the factors and their impacts on survival and growth of venture firms respectively. Using time series data of 8,000 sample firms, we sifted out factors such as founder ownership, which have a positive impact on survival and growth simultaneously. Unique factors such as firm age and capacity for technological innovation by proxy of the number of patents, are presented as determinants which have a positive impact on survival and a negative impact on growth. In addition, factors which have influence not on growth but on survival and vice versa are verified based on the empirical findings. The results provide managers in venture firms and policy makers with managerial implications. Furthermore, this research lays the groundwork for further study by investigating the survival and growth of ventures from a comprehensive perspective and contributes to develop new research models leading to extending related theories. There are, however, a few problems that remain to be explored since we limited survival factors and growth factors to internal characteristics of venture firms out of a variety of organizational characteristics. This research concludes that the characteristics of both external environments of an organization as well as internal management characteristics need to be taken into account to fully explain the determinants of survival factors and growth factors of venture firms for theoretical expansion as Romanelli (1989) suggested earlier.