본 연구는 신생기업이 어떻게 죽음의 계곡을 극복하고 성장을 해나가는가에 대한 질문에 답하기 위해, 신생기업이 죽음의 계곡을 극복하고 성장하는 과정을 탐색해 보고자 하였다. 특히 본 연구는 애자일과 동태적 역량 관점에서 신생기업이 죽음의 계곡을 건너가는 과정에 초점을 맞추었다. 죽음의 계곡을 건너 성장을 지속하고 있는 기업을 선정하여 심층 인터뷰 내용과 공시자료 등을 바탕으로 질적연구를 수행하였고, 근거이론 방법에 따라 분석하였다. 분석 결과, A사 CEO는 기술개발에 성공하였으나 상용화에 실패하였고 자금 소진으로 죽음의 계곡에 들어섰다. 이 어려움을 극복하고자 CEO는 리더십을 발휘하여 스크럼 조직을 구성하고 스프린트 방식으로 제품 개발을 하였고, 그 결과 사업에 성공하고 성장할 수 있었다. CEO는 스크럼 조직을 통해 기업 외부 환경과 시장변화를 감지하였고, 신규 사업 기회를 포착하였을 때 신속하게 기업 내부 자원과 역량을 변환하고 활용하여 시장에 진입하고 경쟁우위를 점할 수 있었다. 본 연구 결과에서 얻을 수 있는 이론적 시사점은, 애자일과 동태적역량 관점을 이용하여 신생기업의 성장과정을 설명함으로써, 관련 이론의 적용가능성을 확인했다는 점과 실증을 위한 연구 모델 구축의 가능성을 발견하였다는 것이다. 또한 본 연구는 기업 성장을 위해 신생기업의 CEO는 기업 내 애자일 조직을 구성하고, 리더십을 통해 애자일 조직이 동태적 역량을 구축하도록 하는 것이 필요하다는 실무적 시사점을 제공한다. 아울러 기술 개발 단계를 거쳐 상용화 단계로 가도록 지원하는 정부 및 지자체의 기술사업화정책은 기업이 죽음의 계곡에 들어서는 것을 예방하기 어렵기 때문에, 이를 보완하고자 애자일 및 동태적 역량을 구축할 수 있는 지원정책을 도입하는 정책방향을 제안하였다. 마지막으로 연구의 제한점 및 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다.
Previous studies examining the reasons why a company was able to grow have found the reason outside the company. These previous studies have a limitation in that they overlooked the internal factors (resources and capabilities) that contribute to the growth of the company. On the other hand, a number of previous studies that found corporate growth factors in corporate internal factors used structural and cross-sectional approaches. These prior studies have limitations in understanding how the growth factors within a company are related to each other through a series of events. In order to overcome the limitations of these studies, this study investigated the process of corporate growth according to the process of a series of events. And I tried to build a theoretical model by finding the core concept of each case and connecting it with the theory that explains the concept well. In particular, this study shows that when a technology-based startup passes the ‘valley of death’ in the process of growth, the CEO of the company grows the company out of the ‘valley of death’ with a strategy that utilizes agile and dynamic capabilities. For this, we used the case study method. Case studies are most appropriate for collecting and analyzing data related to events that occur over time to explain the phenomenon. Therefore, in this study, the case selection criteria were set accordingly, and company A and the CEO of company A was selected as a case for that satisfies them. In addition, quantitative and qualitative data from various sources were collected and analyzed to secure the relevance and objectivity of the survey contents. The CEO of Company A succeeded in making a toy robot through R&D, but failed to pursue the business by expanding to the production and marketing areas where he did not have experience and know-how, resulting in huge debt (valley of death). To overcome this challenge, the CEO sought new markets, recruited relevant experts, formed a team around them, and worked closely with customers to understand their needs (Scrum in Agile). And by meeting with Scrum on a daily and weekly basis, the CEO continuously and frequently improves and launches a product or service (Sprint in Agile). He gave Scrum the autonomy, authority, support, and feedback to effectively and flexibly identify customer needs (Leadership in Agile). The CEO continuously detected changes in the external environment and market through Scrum (Sense in dynamic capabilities), and found new business opportunities in situations where external environment or market changes occurred (Seize in dynamic capabilities). After that, he reorganized human and material resources quickly and successfully, and above all, he was able to overcome the crisis and achieve business results by developing human capabilities (Transform in dynamic capabilities). In the end, the CEO of Company A used agile and dynamic capabilities to get the company out of the ‘valley of death’ and grow into a company that received investment and support from global companies and even went public. Theoretical implications are that by explaining the growth process of new companies using agile and dynamic capabilities perspectives, the applicability of related theories was confirmed and the possibility of establishing a research model for verification was discovered. In addition, this study provides practical implications that it is necessary for the CEO of a start-up company to form an agile organization within the company and to enable the agile organization to build dynamic capabilities through leadership for corporate growth. Policy implications were also presented based on the research results. Since it is difficult for the government and local governments to commercialize technology to prevent companies from entering the “valley of death,” it is necessary to introduce support policies that enable startups to build agile and dynamic capabilities. Finally, limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed.