Research on ways to improve and revitalize the social enterprise startup ecosystem using IPA analysis

The social enterprise startup ecosystem in Korea has had some positive aspects, such as the government's initiative to build infrastructure in a relatively short period of time and a significant increase in the number of social enterprises. However, there is a lack of consistency in government policies, the disappearance of the innovation inherent in social enterprises, and a lack of mid- to long-term strategies from the perspective of the startup ecosystem. In this study, the importance and satisfaction (current level) of each component of the social enterprise startup ecosystem were analyzed using the IPA analysis method for the most important stakeholders of the social enterprise startup ecosystem, namely, entrepreneurs (social entrepreneurs), to provide implications for the establishment of future social enterprise policies. The results of this study showed that the order of importance for social entrepreneurs was: (1) consistency and predictability of government policies (4.72), (2) funding for each stage of growth (4.65), (3) startup support programs (4.64), (4) ease of survival after startup (4.62), and (5) a culture of re-challenge and acceptance of failure (4.57). The satisfaction (current level) rankings were as follows: 1) Startup support staff (3.31), 2) Startup support organization support (3.31), 3) Startup support program (3.20), 4) Startup support organization (intermediate support organization) capacity building (3.17), and 5) Sharing of know-how from senior entrepreneurs (3.13). When the t-test was conducted to analyze the differences in each sub-element of the social enterprise startup ecosystem, all sub-elements showed a higher importance than satisfaction, which means that social enterprise startup entrepreneurs perceive the satisfaction of the social enterprise startup ecosystem components to be very low compared to their importance. In addition, the factors with the highest improvement ranking in the importance-satisfaction matrix were testbed support, ease of market entry, social safety net in the event of a startup failure, ease of exit, a re-challenge ecosystem and a culture of accepting failure, ease of survival after startup, funding support for each stage of growth, and consistency and predictability of government policies. This study proposes improvements to the consistency and predictability of government policies, the creation of a re-challenge ecosystem and the acceptance of failure, the ease of survival after founding, the ease of exit, and funding support for each stage of growth to develop the social enterprise startup ecosystem.