창업가역량이 경영성과에 미치는 영향: 디지털 전환 기반 멘토링의 매개효과를 중심으로

초록

This study examines how entrepreneurial competency influences business performance in the context of digital transformation, with a particular focus on the mediating role of digital transformation-based mentoring. Although prior research has highlighted the importance of both entrepreneurial capability and mentoring, few studies have integrated internal resources, learning processes, and relational capital within a single empirical framework. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, social learning theory, and social capital theory, this research develops and tests a structural model linking entrepreneurial competency, digital transformation-based mentoring, and business performance. Survey data were collected from 289 Korean startups participating in government support programs, and the hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM). The results indicate that entrepreneurial competency has a significant positive effect on business performance, both directly and indirectly through digital mentoring. Among the three mentoring functionsp-ractical knowledge-based mentoring, behavior-modeling mentoring, and trust-based network mentoring-the practical knowledge-based dimension shows the strongest mediating effect. Overall, digital mentoring partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial competency and performance. These findings suggest that entrepreneurs convert their internal capabilities into financial and non-financial performance by continuously learning and building trust-based networks in digital environments. The study contributes to entrepreneurship research by clarifying how digital mentoring channels entrepreneurial competency into organizational outcomes, and it implies that startup support policies should move beyond one-time financial assistance toward structured, stage-specific digital mentoring systems.

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