Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Technology Acquisition on Technology Startups

Since the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, the global economy has been led by big tech companies based on technology startups. In this situation, it is very timely to investigate the antecedent factors for the performance enhancement of technology startups that can play a big role in driving economic growth. We investigate the effect of entrepreneurial orientation and technology acquisition on the financial and non-financial performance of technology startups. In order to achieve these research goals, we collected data from 121 Korean technology startups to examine the effects. Our results support that both entrepreneurial orientation and technology acquisition improve the performance (financial and non-financial) of technology startups. In addition, the entrepreneurial orientation of technology startups has a significant indirect effect on performance (financial and non-financial) through technology acquisition. Overall, our study contributes to improving the understanding of the antecedent factors for the achievement of the performance of technology startups in the field of entrepreneurship research by presenting a new research model of the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, technology acquisition and the performance of technology startups. In addition, this study provides the basis for the need for technology acquisition support policies for technology startup support institutions to nurture technology startups.