The Execution Gap: Why Foreign Startups Fail to Convert Korean Market Entry into Commercial Traction
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Abstract
Korea has emerged as one of Asia's most structured destinations for foreign startup entry, supported by government-backed programs, institutional infrastructure, and a nationally coordinated startup ecosystem. However, despite rising inbound interest, persistent execution failure among foreign startups remains a documented pattern. This paper argues that the dominant failure mode is not a market access problem but an execution gap, defined here as a structural disconnect between the moment of market entry and achieving commercial traction. The execution gap exists because foreign founders consistently enter Korea with mental models shaped by their home market experience, misreading commitment signals, underestimating the role of physical presence, and misinterpreting culturally embedded communication as commercial progress. Drawing on practitioner experience in the Korean startup ecosystem and situated within established internationalization theory, this paper introduces the execution gap as an analytical framework for understanding why entry and execution are fundamentally distinct phases requiring different forms of preparation. This paper contributes a practitioner-grounded perspective to the internationalization literature and opens a broader conversation on what structural conditions foreign startups must meet before market entry, not after.
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