한국 소상공인의 조직화와 체인 인식도에 관한 정책 지원 모델 연구

Abstract

About 88% of business entities in Korea are tiny business like shops, stores and restaurants. In terms of the number of business entities in Korea, they are majority of businesses in the Korean economy. The business performance of them, however, is suffering all the time. They are too small to stand alone. That is why “association” is a crucial means for them to stand together. However there are many limitations to make associations with each other because they don't have specific links or self motivation to do that. Even in the case of franchising networks, associations tend to be initiated by a big franchisor. In that sense, “association” in small businesses is a crucial issue to survive for a longer period of time. With this in mind, this study tries to understand how small businesses think and feel about the issue of “association” and how much important “association” issue is to their business success, and finally, what kinds of problems they raise in the markets. The government ministry that is in charge of these matters knows what these problems are but unfortunately they don't have clear visions on how to deal with these issues. On the top of that, there isn’t much data or materials about who they are and what they really want. This is the background in which we planned this study. The specific research questions we raised are as follows: First, what kinds of characteristics do successful business associations have? Second, what kinds of efforts are they making for management innovation or promoting associations, and what are problems are they facing in the process of innovation or association? Third, how do their attitudes or awareness on associations affect their business performances? Fourth, have their awareness and attitudes on associations reached to the level where their performance can be proved. Fifth, how does the government promote small businesses through their association processes? The results of this study can help the government formulate effective policies on small business associations This study aims to find different cognition depending upon association types of small businesses on problems, competitiveness, support level and support items. We assume that different association types of small businesses have different cognition on these factors. In general, there are two different association types of small businesses: regional based voluntary associations and externally sponsored associations. We try to categorize these associations into several groups: Registered Retailer, Industry Association, Cooperative Association, Chain (Corporate Chain, Franchise Chain, Voluntary Chain, Cooperative Chain), Unregistered Retailer, Joint Brand, and so on. To date most of the studies in this area have focused on collecting data on the external environments of small businesses or just statistical analyses on their status. In this study, we surveyed 4 market areas in Busan, Masan, and Changwon in Korea where business associations consisting of merchants, shop owners and traders exist. We surveyed 350 shops and merchants by sending a questionnaire or visiting in person. Finally, 240 questionnaires were successfully collected and used for statistical analysis. ANOVA, T-test, and regression analysis were conducted to test the research hypotheses. The results demonstrate that there are differences in their cognition depending upon the association types. Generally, voluntary associations compared to externally sponsored associations have higher cognition on problems and lower cognition on their competitiveness. Voluntary associations depend more on outside support than externally sponsored associations. On the other hand, voluntary associations show lower performances in return on investment, market share, and net profit ratio. In conclusion, this study has special implications in terms of classifying small businesses into two different associational types; regional based voluntary associations and externally sponsored associations. We think that our study is the first one to conduct empirical survey in this subject area. In the future, more studies are expected in this area by using the research frameworks that we've done. The results show that with regard to regional-based associations, such as associations in rural cities, less developed areas tend to suffer more problems compared to ones in urban areas. On the contrary, it is proved that franchising type of associations suffer less problems. Problems raised in the study are mostly about “associating itself”. Most associations have serious difficulties in associating themselves. On the other hand, the area where they have fewer problems is an area of “joint brand”, which means many of them are keen on developing joint brands. This study contributes particularly to the point that associating, rather than financial assistance or management consulting is stressed to promote start-ups and managerial performance of small businesses. Association is a critical means to promote small business development. This approach is meaningful in terms of the following three points: First, one single small business is not just an individual entity of business any more but a unit of business for association. In that sense, it is recognized that small businesses could be the main target area of government policies to promote the domestic economy. Second, this is the first study that highlights association issues for small business development. Until now the generally association issue hasn't been taken into account seriously and has been regarded as a dependent factor for retail industry development, not an independent factor for itself. In this study we categorize two different associations; voluntary associations and externally sponsored associations. This analysis could help the government enhance the ability of self-reliant or self-aid of small businesses. Third, through this study a strong background of theories and formal process of analysis in the area of demographic characteristics, managerial performances, entrepreneurship, organizational structures have been established. In fact, even though there are many applicants for further studies in this area, weak theoretical background and poor environment for information or data could discourage them to do. In that sense this study can encourage further studies in this area. In the mean time, this study has some limitations. The main limitations have to do with the number of respondents. If we could increase the sample size of this study, we could produce much more useful results. We could enhance the preciseness of analysis if we study further the organizational levels of different associations of industry. We conclude that the history of small business is very short and the level of associations is still relatively low in Korea. But we should keep in mind that associations are crucial to entrepreneurs who start their businesses because they can heavily affect whether they succeed or not. Being well associated with each other might be critical in business success. The government needs to make more effort and put more resources on supporting small businesses to be more associated together and develop supporting programs more.