Analysis of the Current Status and Developmental Directions for the Self-support Enterprises

Abstract

Self-support enterprise is one that is co-founded by two or more people who experience economic difficulties by undergoing technical training needed for professional education and business startup enabled by government subsidies under the Basic Livelihood Security Act for a certain period. This is a desperate struggle to help build a foundation for independence through startup beyond the hardships of living. Such self-support enterprises bring a great social impact such as by solving the poverty of the socially vulnerable class. It is being investigated that self-support enterprises are steadily increasing as an essential element in realizing democracy at a high level and strengthening the citizens' awareness. In this research, we have tried to reorganize the realities of self–support enterprises by investigating the current status of the self–support enterprises. This research has been conducted for 3 years to survey the realities of the self–support enterprises and to contribute to the activation of self-support enterprises by analyzing such information and presenting the related prescriptions. The self-support enterprises are spread across the country (with the largest present in Gyeonggi), and the number of self-support enterprises is steadily increasing, however, the rate of increase is incrementally on the downturn. Organizational types of the self-support enterprises include corporate business operator, corporation, center operator, and association, with corporations accounted for the largest proportion. As a result of analyzing the current status by the year of incorporation, it was found that self–support enterprise were first established in the 1980s, and explosively increased in the 2000s. Most of the self-support enterprises seem to be concentrated on local businesses such as shipping and courier, cleaning, farming, and restaurant. It would be necessary to expand the purpose of self-support to the dimension of 'achieving social integration.' If more low-income families are self-supported through the self-support projects, not only the self-supporting low-income individuals will benefit, but the welfare of our society will ultimately improve to further solidify the social integration.