The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of the founder''s self-efficacy on the sales of the founding company by focusing on the factors that are currently emphasized in the founding education based on the exiting study written by Joon-Sung Lee and In-Am Song(2019). In particular, this paper starts from the consciousness of the problem that the education that is being implemented to achieve the purpose of successful start-up among various government-based start-up support projects is failing to produce many start-up failures. Entrepreneurs cannot be assessed by objective financial data, but there is a high degree of uncertainty that should be determined based on their personal and learning abilities. In addition, many previous studies, which are likely to be successful when there is a high self-efficacy in a specific field due to the influence of factors such as personal experience or learning, will answer the direction of support for start-up companies. This study focuses on the impact of the founder''s self-efficacy on the sales of the founding firms, especially the sales that are the key to the survival of the founding firms.
This study has six major studies. First, it is analyzed whether the founder''s self-efficacy of entrepreneurship affects the sales of the founder. Entrepreneurship has been found in many previous studies to influence the performance of start-ups, namely financial and non-financial performances. This study examined the impact of sales on the most quantitative measures of financial performance, with the exception of non-financial performance, which is difficult to measure. Even if the financial performance was limited by the impact on sales, which is directly linked to survival, the study conducted whether the results were the same as the previous studies.
Second, it is analyzed whether the founder''s self-efficacy on the market orientation affects the sales of the founder. The market is often referred to as the industry, and how the response to the market is dealt with by individual founders or start-up companies is a very important issue. Whether the result of this response is directly related to the company''s performance, or sales, is a very important question. Therefore, in this study, research was conducted to find out whether the founder''s knowledge and behavior about the market, or response, directly affected sales, one of corporate performance.
Third, it is analyzed whether the founder''s self-efficacy of customer orientation affects the sales of the founder. The customer was regarded as part of market orientation as mentioned in previous studies, but in recent research it is recognized as an independent variable. Especially for small start-ups, it may be more efficient to target the exact goal of the customer rather than the macro approach of the market. As we do not yet have an organization that can handle a variety of functions, we conducted this study on how to analyze and respond to the target customers to affect sales.
Fourth, it is analyzed whether the founder''s self-efficacy on the understanding of management environment change affects the sales of the founder. Uncertainty in the market is a big threat to most companies, but especially a small start-up company. Many previous studies also say that how to respond to environmental changes is very important. However, in this study, the degree of how to respond to changes in the business environment can influence the sales of the start-up companies.
Fifth, it is analyzed whether the founder''s self-efficacy of product differentiation ability affects the sales of the founder. Product differentiation is defined in previous studies as an important factor that can give loyal customers and profits to companies in the market. If product differentiation fails, it will be difficult to secure customers in the market and to provide growth engines through profits. We anticipated that this product differentiation will directly affect the sales of the start-up companies.
Sixth, the analysis of whether the founder''s self-efficacy on the business model construction capability affects the sales of the founding company. A business model is simply a blueprint of how a company makes money. This design is, of course, directly related to sales, and was mentioned in previous studies. Based on these previous studies, the study was conducted to confirm whether it is positively affecting sales.
Lastly, the mediating effect on product differentiation and business model construction, which was mentioned in previous studies, will directly affect sales. Changes in entrepreneurship, market orientation, customer orientation, and business environment are all seen as preparations for running a business and conducting business, rather than focusing on sales. In the previous study, product differentiation and business model construction were often referred to as mediating and moderating effects. Therefore, this study conducted research to check whether there is a hierarchy between these factors or whether they have mediating effects with sales.
As a result of the empirical analysis, this study found that the self-efficacy of entrepreneurs on product differentiation capability and business model building capacity had a positive influence on the sales of entrepreneurs. The self-efficacy had a positive effect on self-efficacy, and the customer orientation had a positive effect on self-efficacy on business model building capacity. Also, it was confirmed that a path exists between the components of self-efficacy and that self-efficacy through the path has a positive effect on the sales of the start-up company. Therefore, the results of this study suggest the implications of establishing such a path and strengthening self-efficacy to create the survival and start-up performance of a start-up company if the goal of the start-up company is to survive when implementing various support projects for the start-up company.





Key words: Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, Market Orientation, Customer Orientation, Understanding of Changes in Management Environment, Product Differentiation Capability, Business Model