A Study of the Competitiveness and Development Strategy of Korean Venture Companies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Using SWOT/AHP

Abstract

This study derives the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) factors and competitiveness index necessary for Korean venture companies to succeed in the fourth industrial revolution. It suggests a SWOT strategy as well as an action plan in which the government and related parties prepare to secure global competitiveness, along with a very basic and systematic analysis. A total of 21 SWOT sub-factors were selected through a literature review and report analysis and were evaluated by various industry, academics, and policy experts via a Delphi survey. The results of pairwise comparative analysis using the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique showed that the importance of the 4 SWOT quadrants could be arranged in order as strength (48%) → opportunity (25%) → threat (16%) → weakness (11%). Looking at the competitiveness index according to industry, ‘Artificial intelligence·Intelligent Robots·Autonomous driving (a)’, ‘Blockchain·Fintech (d)’, ‘Bio-health (f)’, and ‘Big data·Cloud (c)’ possessed high competitiveness. The ‘Internet of Things·5G (b)’, ‘3D printing·Virtual reality (g)’, and ‘New materials·Energy (e)’ industries were the least competent industries. Optimal strategies derived through an analysis of the competitiveness index are as follows: the S-O (Strength-Opportunity) strategy was optimal for industries such as ‘Internet of things·5G (b)’, ‘Big data·Cloud (c)’, ‘Bio-health (f)’, the S-T (Strength-Threat) strategy was optimal for ‘Artificial intelligence·Intelligent Robots·Autonomous driving (a)’, ‘Blockchain·Fintech (d)’ and ‘New materials·Energy (e)’. Finally, the W-T (Weakness -Threat) strategy should be prioritized for the ‘3D printing·Virtual Reality (g)’ industry. The implication of the study outlined above is that policies supporting the strengths and weaknesses of a company must be established beforehand for Korean venture companies to secure competitiveness in the fourth industrial revolution. First, it is of the utmost importance to develop a business faster by utilizing the excellent ICT infrastructure of Korea. Second, the Korean government should take a leading role in mediating the sharing of the resources (manpower, technology, equipment, etc.) that are available from each university, company, and research institute. Third, the government should prepare a technology development roadmap for commercialization as well as source technology for the fourth industrial revolution.