In the field of regenerative medicine, stem cell therapeutic development has emerged as a key technological area. Since the establishment and characterization of human embryonic stem cell lines by James Thomson in 1998, stem cell research has expanded rapidly, accelerating industrialization through the strategic protection of intellectual property (IP) rights. As technological specialization and clinical trial expansion have progressed-particularly since 2015-the feasibility of commercialization has increased. However, IP analyses in the stem cell field have largely been limited to fragmented patent trend studies. This study analyzed the characteristics and limitations of stem cell-based IP and examined the correlations among scientific publications, patent activity, and clinical trials by stem cell type from 2000 to 2020. The findings revealed significant differences among stem cell categories. In particular, adult stem cells (ASCs) demonstrated strong positive correlations between patent filings and SCI-indexed publications (R2=0.947), as well as between patent activity and clinical trials (R2=0.945), suggesting a high level of technological maturity and translational potential. In contrast, embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells showed relatively weaker correlations. The results indicate that ASC-based IP is closely associated with clinical development and commercialization potential. This study provides strategic insights into the potential for proactive commercialization based on the importance of patents in the stem cell therapeutic industry.

This study examines whether green technology innovation is associated differently with firm productivity and ESG performance. Using panel data on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2013 to 2022, we estimate firm and year fixed-effects models and compare within-firm and pooled associations. In the primary corrected revenue-mode specification, green patent applications are negatively associated with short-run within-firm revenue productivity but positively associated with ESG ratings; the productivity result is construct- and specification-bounded. Alternative productivity measures further show that pooled and within-firm specifications capture materially different relationships. Firm age strengthens the ESG association more than the productivity association, whereas temporally ordered tests do not support environmental attention as a mediating channel, and the asset-turnover diagnostics are null. These findings qualify the conventional win–win view of green innovation and highlight the importance of distinguishing external rating responsiveness from internal operational outcomes. The productivity measure is revenue-based and does not represent physical efficiency.

OVERVIEW: This study investigates the impact of corporate foresight on firm performance under conditions of heightened uncertainty. Based on survey data from 258 firms, the results indicate that corporate foresight enhances performance by encouraging managers to explore new ideas, challenge existing assumptions, and proactively respond to emerging trends. The effect is most pronounced when markets and technologies change rapidly, suggesting that corporate foresight is particularly valuable when traditional planning is challenging. These findings underscore the importance of corporate foresight as a practical managerial process that shapes everyday decisions and innovation efforts.

Grounded in the dynamic capabilities framework, this study examines how entrepreneurship and technological innovation jointly shape business performance and how sustainable management conditions these effects across its economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Using survey data from 300 firms across multiple industries, we find that entrepreneurship significantly enhances both non-financial and financial performance, and that technological innovation serves as a key mediating mechanism through which entrepreneurship translates into performance outcomes. The results reveal differentiated moderating effects of sustainable management. While the economic dimension of sustainable management shows a limited moderating influence, the social and environmental dimensions significantly amplify the returns to entrepreneurship and technological innovation. By disentangling sustainable management into distinct dimensions, this study moves beyond prior research and demonstrates that sustainability functions as a contextual capability that asymmetrically conditions the returns to entrepreneurship and innovation. The findings offer actionable insights for managers and policymakers seeking to align entrepreneurial initiatives and innovation strategies with social legitimacy and environmental stewardship to achieve sustained value creation.

Startups face significant challenges in balancing survival with sustainability, as approximately 90% of them fail. Sustainability is often perceived as a short-term cost, yet turbulent business environments—driven by climate change, environmental regulations, and evolving social expectations—are compelling startups to align their innovations with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles. These efforts aim to attract investors, customers, and other stakeholders. Despite resource constraints and the liabilities of smallness and newness, understanding how startups leverage innovation to achieve sustainability performance is of both theoretical and practical importance, particularly within the framework of triple bottom line theory. This study empirically examines the roles of absorptive capacity, appropriability, and openness in mediating and moderating the relationship between innovation activities and sustainability performance in startups. Using data from the Korean Innovation Survey 2018—a structured tool aligned with global standards for tracking innovation activities—we analyze 278 young manufacturing firms. Regression analyses reveal that product innovation and organizational innovation are significantly associated with sustainability performance. Furthermore, absorptive capacity mediates the relationship between these types of innovation and sustainability performance. To explore the contingencies influencing these relationships, we test appropriability (measured by protection mechanisms) and openness (quantified by external partnerships). Moderated mediation analysis indicates that openness strengthens the direct relationship between product innovation and sustainability performance up to a threshold but weakens it beyond this point. Organizational innovation’s impact on sustainability performance is fully mediated by absorptive capacity, while appropriability moderates this mediation by enhancing absorptive capacity’s effectiveness when limited protection mechanisms are used. These findings contribute to sustainability research by highlighting that startups’ sustainability efforts are driven by innovation activities mediated by absorptive capacity and contingent upon specific factors such as appropriability and openness. The study confirms the paradox of openness in startup contexts pursuing triple bottom line objectives. Practically, this research provides actionable insights for corporate leaders and policymakers on fostering absorptive capacity through external knowledge acquisition while carefully managing appropriability mechanisms and collaboration strategies to enhance sustainability outcomes.

In recent days, InsurTech services and users are growing rapidly worldwide. InsurTech, a combination of 'insurance' and 'technology', as an area of Fintech has become an essential innovation strategy of insurance companies. Even if InsurTech services and users are prevalent, there is a lack of empirical research on determinants of user acceptance of InsurTech. The objective of this study is to explore factors determining user acceptance of digital insurance platform services most popular within InsurTech in South Korea. The research model was derived from mainly three theories: the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), information systems success model (ISSM) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT) with service characteristic factors (system quality, information quality, and service quality) and user characteristic factors (personal innovativeness, self-efficacy, and perceived risk). 249 survey responses from South Korea were analysed. According to the results, information quality exhibited an effect on performance expectancy and effort expectancy whereas service quality was shown to affect only effort expectancy. Furthermore, personal innovativeness affected performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence, self-efficacy exhibited an effect on performance expectancy, and perceived risk affected performance expectancy and effort expectancy.

This study empirically examines factors that can influence the sustainable corporate performance of Korean business-to-business (B2B) companies with the help of unique survey data. Factors such as technological capability, the chief executive officer (CEO)’s risk-taking propensity, B2B seller skill, and key account management (KAM) are analyzed to clarify their impact on sustainable financial and non-financial performance. In particular, given that environment, society, and governance (ESG) reporting has recently been widely recognized as an important evaluation factor for companies, we look at the mediating effects of ESG management on sustainable business performance. The results show that the CEO’s risk-taking propensity and B2B seller skill significantly impact the company’s sustainable financial performance, while technological capability and the CEO’s risk-taking propensity significantly impact sustainable non-financial performance. The fact that a CEO’s risk-taking propensity affects both sustainable financial and non-financial performance indicates the importance of entrepreneurial competency in the sustainability of the company. Furthermore, the findings reveal that ESG management plays a crucial role in sustainable corporate performance. The mediating role of ESG management allows technological capability, B2B seller skill, and KAM to influence sustainable financial performance significantly. Likewise, all of the explanatory factors contribute to the company’s sustainable non-financial performance through ESG management. The findings are important for both practitioners and scholars because they emphasize the need to establish an optimal ESG management strategy for corporate survival and sustainability. Furthermore, this study underscores that ESG management should be implemented by all organizational members, from CEOs to employees. Future research will include more comprehensive samples and analyze various strategic factors not covered in this study to derive effective ways by which companies can increase their performance and sustainability. We will also explore the factors that contribute to good ESG management practices.

In the new normal era, digital nomads are poised to play a pivotal role in driving innovation and revitalizing local economies. Their unique lifestyle and skillset can contribute to positive social and cultural changes, making them valuable assets in shaping the future of work and society. This study explores the characteristics of digital nomads based on remote work and seeks policy ways to attract digital nomads to tourist attractions. Focus group interviews (FGIs) were intended to establish policies related to digital nomads’ tourist sites in the new normal era and to provide implications for strategies to revitalize digital nomads. Each FGI’s panel consists of eight people working for working-level officials, government officials, and public organizations, and it was held three times in about two months, from January to February 2023. FGIs consist of four areas: ‘activating local tourism’, ‘digital transformation’, ‘development of wellness contents’, and ‘creating a settlement environment’. Moreover, eight strategic topics and 24 strategic tasks were derived from each strategic category. Seeking regional attraction strategies for digital nomads is meaningful in responding to paradigm shifts in the new normal era and exploring sustainable local ecosystems.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the acceptance intention of service robots in the service counter situation, targeting general consumers who have experience using robots. Based on the UTAUT2 model, we investigated the effects of robot-related characteristics (perceived anthropomorphism, perceived interaction) and user characteristics (perceived risk, self-efficacy) on acceptance intentions. We collected data from 308 individuals and used factor analysis and structural equations for hypothesis testing. Analysis showed that perceived anthropomorphism, self-efficacy, performance expectations, effort expectations, and hedonic motivations influenced use intentions. Furthermore, it was confirmed that perceived anthropomorphism influences performance expectations and pleasure motivations, and that perceived risk influences effort expectations. Perceived interaction and self-efficacy affected both UTAUT2 variables. In order to provide a better customer-centric service environment, we explored the factors that must be prepared before considering technology. We hope that we can provide academic significance and practical suggestions for future research.

This paper aims to examine the relations between market orientation, technological innovation and corporate performance with the moderating roles of leadership, exploitation and exploration by an empirical study targeting 414 Korean responses in diverse industries. The results of the analysis reveal that technological innovation partially mediates the relationship between market orientation and the perceived financial and non-financial performance of a company. Additionally, when technological innovation affects corporate performance, transformational leadership and transactional leadership have a moderating effect on both the perceived financial and non-financial performance, but the exploitation and exploration of innovation activity had a moderating effect only on non-financial performance. Finally, when market orientation affects corporate performance, transformational leadership and exploration of innovative activities have a moderating effect only on non-financial performance. The novelty of this study lies in that it is more effective to carry out market-oriented activities with a focus on the customers rather than to pursue technological innovation alone in order to improve corporate performance. The contribution of this research is to expand the scope of research related to the results of technological innovation academically and to support how to apply corporate management elements in order to improve corporate performance in the field of business.

[연구목적] 본 연구의 목적은 패널데이터분석을 통해 제조기업의 서비스화가 기업재무 성과에 미치는 영향에 대해 고찰 해보고 이를 통해 기업실무자에게 서비스화 도입·추진에 있어 전략적 시사점을 제공하는 것이다.BR[연구방법] 본 연구는 ’15∼’20년 Kospi Top 200 內 제조 기업기반 패널데이터 셋을 구축하여 주요 변수간 영향력, 상관관계, 조절효과 등 동태적 분석과 Almon 시차분포모형을 최초로 적용하여 서비스화가 기업재무성과에 미치는 효과를 입체적으로 분석하였다.BR[연구결과] 패널분석 결과 제조기업의 서비스화와 ROA간에는 음(－)의 영향을 미치는 “서비스 패러독스”가 나타났고 서비스화와 ROE간에는 상관관계가 발생하지 않고, 음(－)의 조절효과가 부분적으로 발생하였다. 또한, Almon시차분포모형을 적용한 서비스화 시차효과분석 결과 ROA의 서비스화 시차효과는 유의하지 않았으며, ROE는 2년차(서비스화 3년차)까지 음(－)의 시차효과가 발생하였다.BR[연구의 시사점] 국내 제조업에서 서비스화 추진 시 “서비스 패러독스”가 발생할 수 있음을 항상 유의해야 하며 서비스는 기업가치 제고에 영향을 미치는 주요한 인자이며 서비스 역량의 고유특성인 비가시성과 일정 수준의 내재화가 되어야 비재무적 성과 및 기업경쟁력 제고에 영향을 미치기 때문에 전사 차원에서 제조․서비스 혁신을 위한 전략적 투자 및 관리의 뒷받침이 필요하다. 또한, ‘제조와 서비스의 융합수준’의 조절효과 분석을 통하여 최근 국내 제조업계에서 이종 산업 간의 융합을 통해 제품, 서비스, 신사업 등 다양한 형태의 산출물로 나타나고 있으나 기업재무성과 측면에서는 부정적인 영향을 미치고 있어 기업 입장에서는 융합기반의 서비스화에 투자 효용성에 대해 전략적으로 고민이 필요하다. 마지막으로, 서비스화와 기업성과 사이에 음(－)의 시차효과가 기존 서비스화의 최대시차보다 동등 혹은 짧게 발생하였는데, 이는 ICT 및 디지털 기술을 프로세스, 제품/서비스 영역에 적극적으로 도입/활용에 따른 결과로 판단된다.

정부의 창업 활성화 정책에 영향을 받아 중소기업 창업이 증가하고 있는 가운데 청년창업기업의 비중 역시 증가하고 있다. 그러나, 창업기업의 생존율은 수년째 개선되고 있지 못하고 있다. 이를 위해 기업생존 연구가 국내외에서 꾸준히 진행됐으나 청년창업기업의 생존요인을 규명하는 연구는 부족하였다. 이에 본 연구는 신기술사업자의 창업자 역량과 기술혁신역량이 기업생존에 미치는 영향을 자원기반관점에서 청년창업기업을 중심으로 분석하였다. 하위요인으로는 창업자 역량의 경우, 기술이해도, 기업가정신, 자금조달능력으로, 기술혁신역량의 경우 아이템의 참신성, 지식재산권 보유 규모, 기술개발 및 수상(인증) 실적, 대체품과의 비교우위로 설정하였다. 표본은 기술보증기금이 2014년 지원한 청년창업기업 958개 기업을 대상으로 하였으며, 5년경과 시점인 2019년 말 현재 생존 여부를 확인하였다.BR 이에 따른 실증결과는 첫째, 창업자 역량 가운데 기술이해도와 자금조달능력은 청년창업기업의 생존에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나 기업가정신은 유의하지 않는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 둘째, 기술혁신역량의 경우 아이템의 참신성을 제외한 지식재산권 보유현황, 기술개발 및 수상(인증) 실적, 대체품과의 비교우위가 청년창업기업의 생존에 유의한 요인으로 나타났다. 이를 통해 청년창업기업의 생존을 위해 창업자의 기술적 역량과 자금조달능력의 함양이 필요하고 기술개발 및 권리확보, 기술의 우위성 확보 등 기술혁신역량 강화에 대한 필요성을 제시하였다.BR 본 연구의 차별점은 선행연구에서 크게 다루지 않았던 신기술사업자와 청년창업기업을 대상으로 하고 있고 창업 첫해의 질적 요인을 기반으로 기업생존을 연구하여 창업 초기 자원의 효용성을 검증한 데 있다. 특히, 기술보증기금과 거래 중단으로 인해 임의 중도 절단된 225개 기업에 대한 전수조사를 통해 부실 여부를 확인한 후 연구에 활용하였다. 이를 통해 검정력을 높여 연구의 차별성을 제고 하였다.BR 끝으로, 본 연구는 창업지원 정책 입안자와 청년 창업자에게 창업자 역량과 기술혁신역량이 청년창업기업의 생존에 영향을 주는 선행요인이라는 것을 확인케 하여 생존율 제고를 위한 정책 도출과 성공적인 창업에 대한 이론적, 실무적 기여가 되기를 기대한다.

기업이 급변하는 경쟁 환경에 대응하면서 지속적인 성장을 이루기 위해서는 기술 경쟁력을 높일 수 있는 혁 신역량을 확보해야 한다. 기업의 기술 융복합 활동 및 활용은 기술 경쟁력 수준을 높이는데 기여할 뿐만 아니라, 해당 기업이 출원한 특허의 기술 우수성을 유지하는데 긍정적인 영향을 준다. 그러나 기업의 기술 융복합 수준을 체계적으 로 분석하여 특허의 질적가치 수준을 나타내는 특허의 피인용과의 관계를 분석하기 위한 노력은 부족하였다. 본 연구 는 기업의 기술 융복합 수준을 생태 다양성 기반의 융합개념을 적용하여 특허의 서지정보에 포함되어 있는 IPC 정보 를 IPC 다종성, IPC 조화성, 그리고 IPC 상이성으로 분석지표를 세분화하였고, 이러한 지표들이 특허의 피인용 수에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 살펴보았다. 글로벌 반도체 업계 상위 10개사가 2011년부터 2020년까지 미국에 등록 출원한 특허 75,530건을 분석하여 기업의 기술 융복합 활동이 특허의 피인용 수와 긍정적인 관계에 있음을 검증하였다.

제약산업은 미래성장동력을 창출할 수 있는 고부가가치 지식기반 산업이자, 연구개발집약적 분야로 혁신활동이 활발히 일어나고 있는 분야이다. 정부는 제약산업의 혁신 및 일자리 창출 능력에 주목하여 다양한 지원정책을 실행하고 있으나, 투자 효율성 및 효과성 극대화 관점에서 전략적 자원 배분에 대한 고민은 다소 부족하다, 이에 본 연구는 제약기업의 혁신 활동이 혁신성과에 미치는 영향을 연구협력 활동 유형의 관점에서 분석해 보았다. 연구 결과, 정부의 정책적 지원이 기업의 혁신성과에 유의한 양(+)의 효과를 주는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 병원과의 연구개발협력 관점에서 분석한 결과, 병원과의 협력이 있는 기업에 더 많은 정부지원이 있는 경우 혁신성과 창출에 양(+)의 기여를 하는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 산 · 병, 산 · 연 · 병 협력 관계를 맺은 기업에 정부연구비를 많이 투자할 경우 혁신성과에 양(+)에 기여하고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 본 연구에서는 제약산업에 대한 혁신활동 지원 정책의 수립에 있어, 기업자체의 혁신활동 능력뿐 아니라 병원을 비롯한 외부와의 연구개발 협력 관계에 따른 정부의 직접적 재정지원을 차별화 할 필요가 있음을 제시했다.