An Empirical Study on the Effect of Innovation Financing on Technology Innovation Competency: Business Performance of SMEs in Korea

This article paper investigates the effectiveness of innovation financing systems by examining the structural equation modeling (SEM) that imputes relationships among latent variables including innovation financing, technology innovation competency, financial performance and non-financial performance of innovative SMEs in Korea. It is identified that innovation financing increases not only technological innovation competency but also business performance of innovative SMEs in Korea. Meanwhile, innovation competency decreases financial performance of firms and increases non-financial performance. These findings are helpful to policy makers in developing countries which should allocate scarce resources efficiently for its economic growth. Providing innovation financing through technology appraisal to innovative SMEs has the potential to grow into one of the most efficient financial policies.