Kookmin University’s Jang Chae-yun Wins Excellence Award in Disability Employment Panel Paper Competition

[Financial News] It has been argued that support policies for self-employed people with disabilities should move beyond simply helping them establish businesses or improve survival rates, and instead encompass reemployment after business closure and sustainable career management.
Kookmin University said on the 27th that Jang Chae-yun, a doctoral student in the Entrepreneurship program in the Department of Business Administration at its general graduate school, had won an Excellence Award in the graduate student paper competition at the “2026 18th Disability Employment Panel Academic Conference,” hosted by the Employment Development Institute of the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
Using eight years of data from the Disability Employment Panel Survey (2016–2023), Jang analyzed 2,751 observations from 582 self-employed people with disabilities. The analysis found that the higher their job satisfaction—their satisfaction with their work—the consistently lower their likelihood of leaving self-employment. Economic viability, including whether they were operating at a loss, also affected exit. By contrast, health status and difficulties in running a business showed no direct relationship with business exit.
Based on the findings, Jang stressed that maintaining self-employment over the long term should be distinguished from building a sustainable career. Accordingly, Jang recommended that policies supporting entrepreneurship among people with disabilities should go beyond focusing solely on the initial startup phase and also cover career management after starting a business and reemployment support after closure.
Jang’s academic adviser, Kookmin University Professor Kim Jong-seong, said, “The finding that job satisfaction consistently explains exit shows that the outcomes of entrepreneurship support should not be evaluated solely by survival rates.” Lee Woo-jin, dean of Kookmin University’s Graduate School of Global Entrepreneurship and Venture, said, “This is an achievement demonstrating that the scope of entrepreneurship studies has expanded beyond business growth to encompass the work and careers of diverse members of society.” The awards ceremony for the 18th Disability Employment Panel Academic Conference, where this paper will be presented, will be held on November 6 at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul.

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter