This paper delineates the rise and fall of a Korean IT venture firm in the
1990s and early 2000s. Rapid growth of an IT firm symbolized the dreams of
unrecognized engineering talents in Korean society without much individual
remunerations within large organizations, but the culturally embedded market
with much expectation of rebates, hierarchical business partnership, and
egalitarian ethos made it difficult to protect and sustain their aspirations.
Employee Stock Owners’ Co-operative, suggested as an alternative to militant
labor union and a new way of financial remuneration to employees, is exam-ined in detail to see how cultural values are mobilized to account for different
interpretations of the reality in the turbulent lifecourse of one courageous
entrepreneurial firm.