A Case Study of Business Support Model Deriving for SMEs : Chungnam Techno Park

The Technology Park has contributed much to the development of local industries through regional innovation policies in Korea. The Technology Park (henceforth The Park) played important roles in the growth of start-ups, venture firms, and Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) since The Park was very well aware of the importance of SMEs competency in terms of their long-term competitiveness. In order to foster SMEs with more value and higher competitiveness, The Park has deployed various business supporting programs and endeavors. Especially, enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs has been recognized as a driving force of local economy as well as industrial growth. Thus, many of these business supporting programs were designed to equip local SMEs with global competitiveness. On the perspectives of supplier, Korean government has also provided various support for The Park’s policy for many years. However, SMEs still perceived that they were not getting enough support and policies. Therefore, The Park should develop more effective way of matching supply and demand of these business supporting programs and policies in place. Chungnam Technology Park(hencefoth CTP) has grown to be one of the most outstanding and front running technology compounds across the country since it was first established in 1999. This is a result of cooperative efforts among all institutes and establishments committed to promote the development of small-scale businesses and venture companies as well as the technology industry. CTP contributed in the development of an approach to improve the efficiency of business support program for SMEs. Especially, based on the customized needs of SMEs in the regional strategic industries, they intend to find directions of the business support program. CTP’s Business support program required certain criteria for SMEs to possess, for example, business strategy, business portfolio, effective budget allocation, core business plans, and etc. This program reflects the differences of industry characteristics, strategy and industry-specifics at each stage of growth. This program is also designed to meet the necessity of creating a customized policy for SMEs. We found implications of efficiency improvement of regional industrial policy at CTP. In conclusion, we found that the business support program must reflect the characteristics of regional industries and the demand of SMEs.