A two-day conference organized by the Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation (KEF), a member of the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network (GERN), explored pathways for developing a creative global economy. The event was widely covered by the Korean media, including the Korea Herald, one of the largest English newspapers in the country.
The KEF Entrepreneurship Conference was held during Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, and the Herald published multiple articles on the event.
“Global entrepreneurship could be the greatest gift to the next generation,” said Nam Min-woo, President of KEF, as he opened the event. The Herald interviewed Min-woo, and discussed the startup environment in Korea.
The global conference included a policy roundtable led by Han Jung-wha, Korea’s Small and Medium Business Administrator, as well as a symposium on entrepreneurship in Korea.
GERN member Mariarosa Lunati, who leads the OECD’s Entrepreneurship, Productivity and Microdata Statistics Directorate spoke at the conference about youth entrepreneurship, which she said during the conference, “is critical not only for economic growth, but also for social integration.”
Xavier Cirera, an economist at the World Bank and as well as member of GERN, gave a how-to presentation on analyzing digital entrepreneurship ecosystems, reported the Herald.
At the symposium, Timo Nyberg, a senior fellow at Aalto University in Finland, described a global transition to what he termed a “platform” economy – one in which Internet-based tools and frameworks channel our economic and social lives.
“The platform economy,” he said, “is characterized by businesses, such as Uber or Airbnb, that support the system with a platform.”
According to the recently released 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Index, Korea needs to encourage competition and provide more opportunities to spread entrepreneurship among young people. The index, compiled by U.S.-based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, measures the overall health of a country’s entrepreneurship system, reported the Herald.
“People do not see opportunities easily here,” said Nyberg. “It appears that a majority of young people continue to seek the safe jobs provided by a big company or public companies. In this transition, the perception of dream jobs will gradually change.”
“Creating businesses has become a lot easier than in the past,” he said, “which means entrepreneurship will drive Korean growth.”
Despite a number of challenges in transition to the platform economy, the professor projected a positive outlook for start-ups from the macroeconomic point of view.
“Koreans have proven to be highly innovative.”
Discussing recent entrepreneurship research, he said, “We are interested in entrepreneurship as a phenomenon, meaning that we want to understand how entrepreneurship is changing in the world.”
To read additional content and explore the original articles: