Good Tech and Social Good: Value Creation by Korean Social and High-Tech Oriented Start-Ups

Abstract

Through an exploration of Korean high-tech social enterprises, we aim to identify and explore critically (a) how socially engaged, early stage, high technology firms combine social and economic objectives with which to scale up their ventures; and (b) how socially engaged firms seek entrepreneurial opportunity development, including the internationalisation process and the support of stake holding institutions to help scale up the value creation process. We highlight ‘people’, ‘organisations’ and the ‘environment’ dimensions, enabling an understanding of the drivers of socially entrepreneurial activity both from individual and societal perspectives. The analytical framework of our study is based on empirical data acquired from individual in-depth interviews, group interviews, active participatory observations and survey data from 2018 to 2021. We found that social motivation and objectives of the entrepreneurs are equally strong drivers and that they are the principal factors for the scaling up process. The motivation is strengthened by the proactive role of government initiatives which also attract other key stakeholders in the growth process. A combination of digital technology with a high degree of social motivation of the entrepreneurs tends to lead to the development of international market opportunities and attract the interests of international foundations.