Recently, technology evaluation by systemized rating approach has been widely used to estimate commercialization potential of technologies possessed by technology-based SMEs in Korea. This approach mainly focuses on alleviation of information asymmetry between financial institutions and technology based entrepreneurs, and makes it possible for technology based firms without enough credit scores by traditional credit rating system to access funding from banks or financial institutions. Therefore, technology evaluation in this term has been focused on making finance experts recognize business potential of technologies, and technology evaluation report, the final result from the evaluation process, has played a role as a kind of language translation - technology information language into financial language form such as estimation of the default rate when the owners or developers of the technology commercializes their technology.
This study focuses on the idea that corporate technology is a sort of strategic resources, and attempts to apply Resource-based View (RBV) to technology evaluation cases in order to enlarge usages of systemized technology evaluation approach not only to banking or finance field, but also to corporate strategy area. This study also attempts to find extended usages of VRIO framework, which has been usually used in corporate strategy practice, to the area of strategic technology evaluation for technology based firms.
The RBV explains that the resource which is valuable, rare, or costly imitable can be a main source of competitive advantage for a firm. In this regards, VRIO Framework was suggested as a method of finding strategic resources by testing four unique characteristics of strategic resources such as value, rareness, inimitability and organization. It has been positioned as one of useful strategic tools in RBV and widely used in order to recognize strategic potential of corporate resources. However, its effectiveness has not sufficiently proven.
Considering these situations. This study presents empirical results of the relation between VRIO components and competitive advantage, and tests effectiveness of VRIO framework with utilizing sufficient real technology evaluation cases and financial statements of more than thousand venture firms in Korea. To test its statistical effectiveness, this study performs structural equation modeling analysis by setting one research model with organization as a parameter between VRI(value, rareness, and inimitability) and competitive advantage, and two comparative models with organization as a modifier between VRI and competitive advantage, or an independent valuable alike VRI.
As a result, this study finds that the components of the VRIO in the cases of corporate technology evaluation have a positive influence on competitive advantage. Value, rareness, and inimitability have statistically meaningful positive effects on competitive advantage but their effects are indirect. Organization serves as a parameter between VRI and competitive advantage, and has comparatively a more meaningful positive direct effect on the competitive advantage.
This study reaches a conclusion that VRIO framework has a possibility to be used in technology evaluation area as a form of systemized approaches when more sophisticated evaluation indexes matching up with VRIO''s concept will be developed. This study also suggests that a modularized design of technology evaluation system to combine technology strategy module and finance module with traditional evaluation system is recommendable in order to utilize VRIO framework in the field of strategic technology evaluation for technology based firms.