INTRODUCTION

K-Beauty, like K-POP, is a compound word of KOREA'S 'K' and 'BEAUTY' is a new word that arose as the Korean beauty industry gained attention overseas. Since the 1990’s, as the 'Korean Wave' such as K-drama, K-POP, and K-movie has become a major axis, Korean popular cultural content has started to become a Korean Culture craze in Asia, and Korean culture has been in the spotlight overseas. As a result, Korean makeup, hair styling, and fashion became very popular all over the world. People wanted to imitate Korean beauty culture, so a fandom of K-beauty emerged, establishing itself as a type of K-culture content and reaching the level of leading the world's beauty trends (Lee, 2019c). Through this, interest and expectations are growing significantly in the K-beauty service industry as a service industry that creates high-added value. In Korea's beauty service industry, even before the new term K-beauty was popularly used, the desire for beauty was already a natural human desire. Based on this desire, the beauty service industry has continued to develop, contributing to economic development and living standards. It is showing continuous growth in line with the needs of customers who want changes along with the development of media (Kim, 2021). With the growth of the beauty service industry, the size of the market for entering beauty businesses or seeking employment is growing. The characteristics of the beauty service industry are a labor-intensive industry with a high dependence on human resources which should satisfy customers' aesthetic needs through technology and services with human hands rather than physical systems that is mainly occupied by women. In the beauty service industry, technical skills are very important, and certification is a prerequisite, so there are a lot of technology-related training. However, education related to entrepreneurship is not being provided properly. Therefore, it is necessary to consider not only psychological aspects such as entrepreneurial orientation, self-efficacy, and attitude through entrepreneurship education, but also practical contents such as team building, entrepreneur's time management, and leadership that can be practically used in starting a business (Ferreras-Garcia et al., 2021). So far, new technologies such as ventures and I.T. have been studied with a focus on technology-oriented companies that create high value and the manufacturing sector, but it is said that they can also be applied to the service industry (Kaufmann & Dant, 1999). To achieve sustainable growth and development in the K-beauty service industry, which is highly dependent on people and is dotted with businesses with small capital, individual and organizational innovative activities with entrepreneurship are an important factor in starting a business. Therefore, to be competitive in the K-beauty service industry, cultivating entrepreneurship can be expected to be effective in strengthening the capabilities of beauty workers by matching individual capabilities and acting as a driving force for high value-added. However, prior research that has verified the causal relationship between factors that increase the willingness to start a business among employees in the K-beauty service industry and entrepreneurship is insufficient. In particular, research targeting workers in the K-beauty service industry is very insufficient, so empirical research is needed. The purpose of this study is to re-recognize the importance of entrepreneurship among employees in the K-beauty service industry, verify its influence on the will to start a business, and examine the mediating effect of technological capabilities in the relationship between entrepreneurship and the will to start a business. An empirical analysis was attempted. Through the results of the study, entrepreneurship is making an academic contribution to suggest a direction that can increase the entrepreneurial will of employees in the K-beauty service industry.

Literature Review

K-Beauty Service Industry

K-beauty, like K-POP, is a compound word of KOREA's 'K' and 'BEAUTY' and is a new word that arose as the Korean beauty industry gained attention overseas. With the emergence of a fandom called K-beauty, it has established itself as a type of K-culture content and has reached the level of leading the world's beauty trends (Lee, 2019c). Korea Health Industry Promotion Park (2012) defined the beauty service industry as an industry that helps keep the human body beautiful and healthy and includes beauty-related industries such as hair beauty, skincare, nail art, and makeup, and Lee (2019b) is an industry that satisfies the inner desire to cultivate human beauty, creates new demand in connection with health, medicine, science, living arts, culture, appreciation, etc., and contains intangible emotional consumption combined with social value.

Entrepreneurship

According to Schumpeter (1934), entrepreneurship was implied as 'creative destruction', and the capitalist economy carries out creative destruction through a continuous innovation process and makes efforts or actions to creatively adapt to environmental changes, So it was called entrepreneurship. An and Yang (2020) said that there is a trend to increasingly expand recognition according to a global perspective, moving away from the narrow concept limited to a few experts, such as entrepreneurs, and viewing it as a broad concept to solve social and economic problems. In addition, uncertainty Nevertheless, it is defined as an innovative, enterprising, and risk-taking disposition or attitude that seeks to seize business opportunities and create value (Kim & Ga, 2019).

Innovativeness - Lumpkin and Dess (1996) stated that innovativeness is a core concept of entrepreneurship and can be said to be a company's desire to set goals and continue active activities to develop new ideas and new processes and to deal with the uncertainty of the changing environment and resource constraints. It was defined as the efforts of entrepreneurs who continue to work to create new business opportunities despite the circumstances. Kim (2019) prepares for a better future that minimizes fear of current crises and risks through rapid decision-making and correct response strategies based on continuous innovation.

Proactiveness - Ferreras-Mendez et al. (2021) defined it as a company's tendency to take the initiative to actively compete with competitors. According to Lumpkin and Dess (1996), proactiveness refers to the will to actively compete with competitors in the market and to produce superior performance, and it also refers to the attitude of challenging competitors directly and at a high level in order to change their position in the market. It can be said to be the tendency to look to the future in making new strategic decisions as well as to predict and act on future problems, desires, and changes (Miller & Friesen, 1982).

Risk-taking propensity Hong (2021) said that it means the intention to take on a bold challenge despite uncertain performance in a risky competitive crisis and that it is a personal characteristic that is willing to accept risk with the will to actively pursue opportunities. In addition, Kim et al. (2021) referred to risk tolerance as the attitude of choosing a new method even if it involves risk in order to pursue profits, and the tendency to take risks and take on challenges to generate profits. People with high-risk sensitivity tend to prefer issues with a high level of risk and have a tendency to actively seek out and seize market opportunities (Covin & Slevin, 1991). It was argued that risk tolerance creates new value by seizing opportunities and includes both a risk-taking mindset and behavior (Morris & Lewis, 1995).

Technical Capabilities

Rizki and Susanto (2021) say that technological capability generally refers to all technical capabilities related to product development and production and refers to the knowledge and techniques required to select, acquire, improve, and utilize technology. It also refers to the ability to identify and recognize customer needs so that they can be easily met (Lim et al., 2023). Technological capabilities, a factor that affects business performance, are the foundation of a technology-based company's core capabilities and a success factor for competitive advantage, and in the case of small businesses or one-person companies, they are a key factor in the company's sustainable growth and survival that can be done (Hong, 2022).

Will to Start a Business

Bird (1988) defined it as the desire to start a new business or own one's business, intending to create a new venture or create new value in an existing venture. It refers to the psychological state of an individual who plans and prepares to establish a company in the future based on the talent and experience of a potential entrepreneur (Song, 2021), and the possibility of starting a business on one's own with the will to start a business. It was viewed as an individual's will or passion to start a business in the future, and it was also viewed as a process that can be explained by planning, ability, risk, interaction, and management in the process of starting a business (Jang et al., 2019).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Research Hypothesis

In this study, the following research hypothesis and a research model (Figure 1) were established to investigate the effect of the relationship between entrepreneurship and the technological capabilities of K-beauty service industry workers on their will to start a business.

H1. Entrepreneurship will have a positive effect on technical capabilities.

H2. Technical capabilities will have a positive effect on the willingness to start a business.

H3. Entrepreneurship will have a positive effect on the will to start a business.

H4. Technical capabilities will mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention.

Survey Subjects and Data Collection

This study conducted a survey targeting workers in the beauty service industry in Busan. The survey period was 30 days from September 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023. Data were collected online and offline by conducting the survey, and a total of 200 responses were gathered. A total of 197 responses were used for the final analysis as three responses were considered to be inaccurate.

Composition of Measurement Tools

A total of 32 survey questions used in the study's measurement tool consisted of a nominal scale for general characteristics and a 5-point Likert scale. General characteristics were comprised of 4 questions. Entrepreneurship was comprised of 15 questions in total, including 5 questions about innovation, 5 questions about progressiveness, and 5 questions about risk tolerance, by modifying and supplementing the studies of Baek (2023) and Gi (2020). Technical capabilities were comprised of 4 questions. The study by Kim and Yang (2020) was revised and supplemented to form a single factor of 5 questions, and the will to start a business was revised and supplemented by the study of Lee (2019d) and reorganized into a single factor of 5 items.

Data Analysis

Statistical processing of the collected data went through the process of data coding and data cleaning using the SPSS 28.0 statistical package program, and the analysis method was as follows. Frequency analysis was conducted on the general characteristics of the survey subjects, factor analysis was conducted on the validity and reliability of entrepreneurship, technical capabilities, and entrepreneurial will, correlation analysis was conducted to determine the correlation between each variable, and regression analysis was conducted to verify the hypothesis. A three-stage mediation regression analysis was conducted to investigate the mediating effect of technical capabilities.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1 shows the results of the frequency analysis of the general characteristics of the survey subjects. As a result of the analysis, there were 176 women (89.3%) and 21 men (10.7%). Most of the respondents were in their 20’s, with 111 people (56.3%). There were 65 people in their 30’s (33.0%) and 21 people in their 40’s or older (10.7%). In terms of educational background, 72 people (36.5%) graduated with a bachelor's degree. 57 people (28.9%) graduated with an associate's degree, 50 people (25.4%) graduated with a master's degree or higher, and 18 people (9.1%) graduated from high school. Next, the skin industry accounted for the largest proportion with 98 people (49.7%), followed by the nail industry with 49 people (24.9%), hair with 30 people (15.2%), and makeup with 20 people (10.2%). The majority of people had less than 3 years of work experience (94 people (47.7%)), 38 people (19.3%) had 3 to 5 years of experience, 25 people (12.7%) had 5 to 7 years of experience, and 31 people had 7 to 10 years of experience. (15.7%), with 9 people (4.6%) over 10 years. The distribution of entrepreneurship education was as follows: 152 people (77.2%) had none, 45 people (22.8%) had entrepreneurship experience, 170 people (86.3%) had entrepreneurship experience, and 27 people (13.7%) had entrepreneurship experience.

Table 1. Sample descriptive

Reliability Analysis

Table 2 below shows the results of the reliability analysis of the scale used in the study.

According to the obtained results, Cronbach's alpha value for entrepreneurship was confirmed to be 0.855. The Cronbach's alpha value of technical competency was found to be 0.915, and the value of entrepreneurial was found to be 0.906. The reliability (Cronbach’s α) coefficient of all measurement items were above 0.7, ensuring high reliability of the measurement tool.

Table 2. The reliability results of the scales

Regression Findings

As a result of the regression analysis of Hypothesis 1, the verification results of Hypotheses 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 are tabulated in Table 3. ‘Entrepreneurship will affect technological capabilities. The explanatory power (R²) decreases to 46.4%, and F=57.557 (p.=.001), a statistically significant result. Pro-activeness (β=.357, p<.001) and innovativeness (β=.316, p<.001) were found to have a significant positive (+) effect on technical capabilities. However, risk-taking (β=.092, p>.05) appeared to not affect the technical capabilities. These results show that beauticians working in the beauty service industry search for new and original technologies, actively utilize ideas, have a positive attitude toward accepting technology, have a clear sense of purpose in what they do, and have pride and an enterprising tendency to achieve. As a result, this is considered to have a positive effect on technical capabilities. However, it was found that the attitude of taking risks and actively adapting to environmental changes even in uncertain situations or the attitude of promoting new things even when taking risks did not affect technical capabilities. In a study by Kim (2016), the entrepreneurship spirit of technology startups were found to have a positive effect on technological innovation capabilities, and Jeon et al. (2020) found that the entrepreneurship spirit of domestic small and medium-sized manufacturing companies had an impact on technological performance. It can be seen that it is similar to this study.

Table 3. Impact of entrepreneurship on technical capabilities

adj R²=.464, F=57.557 p=.001

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

The regression analysis results for Hypothesis 2 are shown in Table 4. The explanatory power (R²) was found to be 39.5%. A statistically significant result was F=128.717 (p=.001). Technical competency (β=.641, p<.001) had a significant positive (+) effect on the will to start a business. This means that beauticians who can guide with professional skills, pride themselves on being the subject in work-related situations, and can perform new techniques for customers with expertise on various programs are confident in their specialized field. It can be interpreted that they have a high will to start a business that they like, they are good at, and that they enjoy. Go (2017) presented the results of an empirical analysis of students entering the Youth Entrepreneurship Academy and students of the National Graduate School of Entrepreneurship. It shows that high technological capabilities have a positive effect on the will to start a business. Moreover, Kim and Yang (2020) showed that technological entrepreneurship findings that the higher the technical capabilities of general adults who are interested in the characteristics of entrepreneurial capabilities and are engaged in economic activities, the higher their willingness to start a business.

Table 4. Impact of technical capabilities on entrepreneurial intention

adj R²=.395 F=128,717 p=.001

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

Table 5 below shows the regression analysis results of Hypothesis 3 and the verification results of Hypotheses 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3. The explanatory power (R²) was 28.4%, and a statistically significant result was F=26.915 (p=.001). Enterprisingness (β=.357, p<.001) had a significant positive (+) effect on the will to start a business. Innovativeness (β=.171, p>.05) and risk-taking (β=.821, p>.05) appeared to have no effect. These results can be predicted to have a high will to start a business if one has pride in what he or she does, has a clear sense of purpose, a high level of initiative and motivation for work, and a desire to achieve. As a result of Kang (2023) study on the will to start a business among women with career breaks, indicates that if the progressiveness of entrepreneurship is high, it has a positive effect on the will to start a business. However, the results of this study show that risk tolerance does not affect the will to start a business. It can be seen that it is similar to each factor. However, the innovativeness and risk-taking of entrepreneurship do not affect the will to start a business, although the will to start a business shows a positive attitude. It is predicted that it will act as an anxiety factor in making decisions about starting a business while bearing the uncertainty of success in an economic recession.

In the study by Lee (2019a) on the influence of entrepreneurship, the will to start a business according to the field of major of female college students, the results excluded the effect of risk sensitivity on entrepreneurship among female college students in the arts and physical education departments, and the results showed that female college students in the humanities and social sciences departments were entrepreneurs. The results on preventing the influence of mentality on innovative entrepreneurship support this study.

Table 5. The impact of entrepreneurship on the will to start a business

adj R²=.284, F=26.915 p=.001

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

The results of the mediation effect analysis of Hypothesis 4 are shown in Table 6. As a result of the analysis of the mediation conditions in the first stage, the independent variable, entrepreneurship, was found to have a significant positive influence on the mediator and technical capabilities, and the mediation conditions were met (β=.673, p< .001). As a result of the second-stage mediation analysis, the independent variable, entrepreneurship, was found to have a significant positive effect on the dependent variable, the will to start a business, satisfying the mediation condition (β=.527, p<.001). As a result of the 3rd stage mediation condition analysis, the regression coefficients of the independent variable, entrepreneurship, and the dependent variable, technical ability, decreased compared to the 2nd stage. Also, they were still significant (β=.527, p<.001 →β). =.178, p<.05), and the mediating variable technical competency (β=.504, p<.001) was also significant, showing that technical competency partially mediates the effect on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial will. The study by Jeon et al. (2020) suggests that technological performance plays a mediating role in financial performance as the entrepreneurship and technology commercialization capabilities of small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses are strengthened, and Lim (2023) suggests that college students' entrepreneurship and technology commercialization capacity are strengthened. This study supports this analysis by verifying the mediating effect of understanding the technological capabilities of the 4th industrial revolution in the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the mediating effect.

Table 6. The mediating effect of technological competency on the relationship between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial will.

R²=.417, Adj.R²=.411, F-value=69.325^***, p=.001

*p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

CONCLUSION

The study aimed to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship and technological competency on entrepreneurial intentions among beauty service industry workers in the Busan area, as well as explore the mediating effect of technological competency. The results of the study are summarized as follows:

Firstly, entrepreneurship was found to have a partially positive (+) influence on technological competency. The proactive and innovative aspects of entrepreneurship yielded positive results, indicating that while most workers in the beauty service industry possess strong technological competencies, their attitudes towards actively embracing environmental changes and challenges, even in uncertain situations might be passive in terms of risk-taking.

Secondly, technological competency was found to have a positive influence on entrepreneurial intentions. This suggests that as workers in the beauty service industry acquire specialized skills, perceive themselves as competent in their work situations, and possess the ability to apply new techniques and trends to serve customers, their intentions toward entrepreneurship increase.

Thirdly, entrepreneurship was found to have a partially positive (+) influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Specifically, the sub-factor of proactiveness influenced entrepreneurial intentions, whereas innovativeness and risk-taking propensity did not. This implies that while workers in the beauty service industry generally have high aspirations for entrepreneurship as a future vision, their direct experience with entrepreneurship may be lacking, especially in terms of innovation and risk-taking.

Additionally, it is predicted that innovation and risk-taking propensity, being inadequately developed, do not exert influence. Thirdly, technological competency was found to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions. This suggests that when workers in the beauty service industry possess entrepreneurship that enables them to develop sufficient technological competency, it positively impacts their entrepreneurial intentions. While the innovativeness and the risk-taking propensity of entrepreneurship did not directly influence entrepreneurial intentions, the process of enhancing technological competency, which involves generating innovative ideas, fostering pride in work, and having a clear sense of future goals, can lead to a positive perception of entrepreneurship and higher entrepreneurial intentions.

In conclusion, as a result of the study, the hypothesis that the three elements of entrepreneurship - innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking propensity - would positively influence the entrepreneurial intentions of workers in the beauty service industry was partially supported. Among the sub-factors of entrepreneurship, proactiveness was found to have the most significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions. However, innovativeness and risk-taking propensity did not influence entrepreneurial intentions.

The majority of participants in the study were women, showing strong aspirations toward entrepreneurship. However, their lack of entrepreneurial experience, especially in an industry like beauty services that values stability over innovation and risk-taking due to its high-risk nature, may have resulted in their passive approach towards these aspects. Although previous research generally indicates a positive relationship between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intentions, the current findings are limited by participants' lack of exposure to entrepreneurship education, making it challenging to definitively assess this relationship based solely on the results. This suggests that entrepreneurship-related education for workers in the beauty service industry should be expanded more systematically. Above all, most workers in the beauty service industry are considering starting a business as a future vision, which shows that entrepreneurship education is necessary.

Therefore, the direction to solve the problem is presented as follows: First, most startups in the beauty service industry are women, so to foster excellent female prospective entrepreneurs, it is required to promote launching startups and form a community of prospective entrepreneurs through various education necessary for starting a business so that those working in the beauty service industry can understand and prepare for starting a business. Institutional support will be needed. Second, it is important to gain understanding and interest in entrepreneurship by providing education on changes in perception, supporting comebacks of failed entrepreneurs, and offering opportunities through discovering and sharing cases of successful entrepreneurs at home and abroad.

Limitations and Dimensions for Future Research

This study has the following limitations: First, there are limitations in generalizing the research results, as the analysis targets are limited to those working in the beauty service industry located in the Busan area, and the sample size is 197. To expand the research sample in the future, it is necessary to conduct an empirical analysis targeting workers in the beauty service industry across the country to derive research results. Second, this data relies entirely on surveys, so respondents’ subjective views may be reflected in the survey. In the future, it will be necessary to develop objective measures in addition to surveys to solve problems that may arise from subjective responses. Entrepreneurship has been studied by Western scholars that focus on corporations. However, entrepreneurship is not limited to corporate management or economic activity but is an attitude and value that governs all areas of life, including politics, the economy, and our society. Just as it is a standard for judgment, entrepreneurship is believed that research and education are needed to find not only innovation, progressiveness, and risk-taking inherent in entrepreneurship for those working in the beauty service industry but also the entrepreneurship necessary for our beauty service industry.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks to the participants who contributed to the research.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None

FINANCIAL SUPPORT: This thesis was supported by Yeongsan University academic research funds for the 2024 academic year.

ETHICS STATEMENT: None