재직자의 지속학습이 창업의지에 미치는 영향

Effect of continuous learning of incumbent on Entrepreneur's intention: Focusing on the double mediation of employability and innovation behavior

제4차 산업혁명시대에 글로벌 기업환경은 급변하고 불투명성이 커지고 있다. 지난 2020년 3월부터 본격화된 코로나 팬데믹은 전세계 경제에 큰 충격에 기인하여 불확실성은 더욱 커져 산업생태계 대변혁의 시대를 맞이하고 있다. 잡코리아(2021b)는 직장 근로자 10명중 8명은 창업에 도전할 의지가 있다. 앞으로는 직장 재직자의 창업활동은 선택하는 것이 아니라 경제활동의 기본으로 인식하고 있다. 이런 상황에서 재직자의 지속학습이 창업의지와 얼마만큼의 상관관계가 있는가를 탐색하고 고용가능성과 혁신행동이 그 사이에서 매개하는지를 살펴보았다. 첫째, 지속학습은 창업의지, 고용가능성, 혁신행동에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 직장에서의 끊임없는 지속학습은 자신의 역량을 높이고 혁신적 행동과 창업의지를 높이는 것으로 보인다. 둘째, 고용가능성과 혁신행동도 창업의지에 긍정의 영향이 있음을 확인하였다. 직장에서 자기개발을 통해 고용가능성이 높아지고 도전적인 혁신적 행동 또한 창업의지를 향상시키는데 중요한 변수임을 확인하였다. 셋째, 고용가능성이 혁신행동에 긍정의 영향을 미치는 것을 확인하였다. 이는 고용가능성을 높이기 위한 다양한 활동은 혁신행동을 유발하는데 직접적인 영향을 미치고 있음을 확인할 수 있었다. 직장에서 지속학습, 고용가능성, 혁신행동은 창업의지를 높이는 중요한 요소임을 확인할 수 있었다. 따라서 직장인들이 직장을 다니면서 끊임없이 자신의 역량을 개발하고 변화와 혁신의 기회를 높여서 고용가능성과 혁신행동이 강화된다면 창업의지가 높아질 것으로 기대된다. 본 연구는 직장인의 직장 경험이 창업 활성화, 고용지표개선, 경제성장의 선순환 구조로 전환에 기여할 것으로 기대된다.

In this age of the fourth industrial revolution, the environment of global companies is changing rapidly, which makes opacity bigger and bigger. The COVID-19 pandemic that started genuinely from March, 2020 has had a great impact on global economy and made uncertainty even larger, so we are now facing the era of enormous transformation in the economic ecosystem. With the increase of aged population, productive population decreased, and at the point of December, 2020, along with companies’ closure, layoff, or depression in management, the rate of those having to quit their job involuntarily increased as 48.9% (NSO, 2020) compared to that in 2019. The mean age of workers who retire is 49.7, so regardless of their intention, they have to give up their job early inevitably. Eight out of ten workers are found to have intention to start a company; therefore, now, it is not selective but mandatory for workers to start their own business. The purpose of this study is to investigate how workers’ learning persistence is correlated with their entrepreneurship and if employment prospect and innovative behavior have mediating effects in it. The study results can be summed up as follows. First, learning persistence is found to exert positive effects on entrepreneurship, employment prospect, and innovative behavior. Learning persistence at work is found to be a crucial variable to improve one’s competence and enhance innovative behavior and entrepreneurship. Second, employment prospect and innovative behavior, too, influence entrepreneurship positively. Self-development at work increases employment prospect, and restless innovative behavior is also found to be a crucial variable to enhance entrepreneurship. Third, employment prospect is found to influence innovative behavior positively. This implies that various activities to increase employment prospect are an important variable which directly influences the arousing of innovative behavior. Fourth, employment prospect and innovative behavior are not found to have mediating effects on correlation between learning persistence and entrepreneurship. Also, innovative behavior is found to have partial mediating effects on correlation between employment prospect and entrepreneurship. Learning persistence, employment prospect, and innovative behavior at work are found to be crucial factors to heighten entrepreneurship. Accordingly, if workers develop their competence restlessly, increase opportunity for change and innovation, and enhance employment prospect and innovative behavior while working, their entrepreneurship will be increased as well. This study is expected to contribute to conversion into the structure of a virtuous cycle: having work experience-vitalizing start-ups-improving hiring indexes-growing economy.