This study empirically investigates the impact of technology commercialization capabilities on the business performance of start-ups, focusing on the mediating roles of policy financing and managerial support. With the acceleration of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital transformation, and the transition to a green economy, technology-driven start-ups are emerging as a new engine of national economic growth. However, these firms often face structural challenges in the commercialization stage following technology development, such as securing funding, managing operations, and entering markets. To overcome these barriers, policy support and institutional backing are essential. In particular, merely possessing technological capabilities is not sufficient to generate business performance; it is necessary to systematically analyze the entire process of technology commercialization and clarify the operational mechanisms of mediating factors that support it. Accordingly, this study aims to empirically examine the impact of technology commercialization capabilities on business performance, and to analyze the mediating roles of policy finance and management support in these relationships. Technology commercialization capabilities were categorized into four sub-dimensions: R&D capability, productization capability, production capability, and marketing capability. A total of 217 survey responses collected from employees of start-ups across the country were used for the analysis. The analysis employed SPSS v26.0 and PROCESS macro v4.2, applying a dual-parallel mediation model to examine the structural relationships. The results are as follows: First, all sub-dimensions of technology commercialization capabilities had significant positive effects on both policy financing and managerial support. Among them, production capability had the greatest influence on policy financing, while productization capability was found to have the strongest effect on managerial support. Second, both policy financing and managerial support had significant positive effects on business performance, with managerial support showing a relatively stronger influence. Third, technology commercialization capabilities significantly affected business performance, with production capability having the greatest impact, followed by productization, R&D, and marketing capabilities. These findings suggest that strengthening capabilities in the production and productization stages plays a critical role in enhancing business performance during the commercialization process. Fourth, policy financing and managerial support were confirmed to mediate the relationship between technology commercialization capabilities and business performance. The indirect effect through policy financing was highest for production capability, while the effect through managerial support was strongest for productization capability. The academic implications of this study are as follows: First, it identifies the importance of the multidimensional components of technology commercialization capabilities. Second, it empirically presents the mediating structure of policy financing and managerial support. Third, it extends research on capability-based start-up support. Fourth, it provides empirical data on performance mediation mechanisms. The practical implications are: (1) the need for focused support on production capability, (2) strategic utilization of policy financing, (3) the necessity of qualitative enhancement of managerial support, and (4) the development of customized, capability-based start-up support policies.
Hong et al. (Thu,) studied this question.