Intangible Capital, Opportunity Exploitation and Institutional Endorsement in Emerging IT Industry

摘要

In early stage of entrepreneurial process, an entrepreneur makes the best use of his/her human and social capital to overcome the liability of newness. In this study, we define human/social capital aspects of an entrepreneur's personal resources "intangible capital". We investigate how intangible capital of an entrepreneur influences their ability to exploit business opportunity in a promising industry and to induce venture capital investment. The data come from Korean startups in information technology industry. An empirical analysis of 357 firms gone public in the KOSDAQ market shows that an entrepreneur with prior relevant work experience and network in related firm more likely exploit business opportunity in a promising industry and induce venture institutional endorsement. The managerial background of an entrepreneur turns out to be a more important factor than education.