Research and development linkages in a national innovation system: Factors affecting success and failure in Korea

Abstract Various partnerships are regarded as a key component of national innovation systems (NISs). This study explores the contributions of R&D partnership to successful innovation in the Korean intermediate sector in the context of a NIS. A sample of successful and failed innovation projects is drawn from firms in the Korean electronic parts and mechanical industries. These industries are typical of the Korean intermediate goods industry, which has experienced rapid technological advances in recent years. We divide the data according to two main criteria—type of innovation (product versus process innovation) and source of innovation (demand-pull versus technology-push innovation)—and base the empirical analysis on the four resulting domains. Main findings are that (1) financial support from government in the early stage of R&D and from downstream firms in general improves innovative activities’ chance of success and (2) collaborative R&D, especially collaboration with downstream firms and universities, likewise improves the chance of success.

[1]  K. Pavitt.  Sectoral Patterns of Technical Change : Towards a Taxonomy and a Theory : Research Policy , 1984 .

[2]  Jakob B. Madsen.  Book review: Basic Econometrics, Damodar N. Gujarati, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995 , 1998 .

[3]  H. Theil.  Introduction to econometrics , 1978 .

[4]  Ping Lin,et al.  Vertical research joint ventures , 2001 .

[5]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[6]  An integrated modelling framework for exploration and extraction of petroleum resources 1 Most of th , 2000 .

[7]  C. Edquist,et al.  Systems of Innovation : Theory and Policy for the Demand Side , 1999 .

[8]  R. Nelson.  National Innovation Systems: A Comparative Analysis , 1993 .

[9]  B. Lundvall.  National Systems of Innovation , 1992 .

[10]  B. Lundvall.  Product Innovation and User-Producer Interaction , 1985 .

[11]  Yang Jian-hua,et al.  The Source of Innovation , 2005 .

[12]  G. Dosi.  Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change , 1982 .

[13]  Athanasios Hadjimanolis,et al.  Barriers to innovation for SMEs in a small less developed country (Cyprus) , 1999 .

[14]  John Bessant,et al.  Small firms, R&D, technology and innovation in the UK: a literature review , 1998 .

[15]  Mark Freel,et al.  The financing of small firm product innovation within the UK , 1999 .

[16]  Paul Stoneman,et al.  Handbook of the economics of innovation and technological change , 1995 .

[17]  Stanislaw Gomulka,et al.  The theory of technological change and economic growth , 1990 .

[18]  C. Edquist.  Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organizations , 1997 .

[19]  M. Porter.  What is strategy , 2000 .

[20]  C. Freeman.  Technology policy and economic performance : lessons from Japan , 1987 .

[21]  G. Dosi,et al.  Technical Change and Economic Theory , 1989 .

[22]  Roy Rothwell,et al.  External networking and innovation in small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Europe , 1991 .

[23]  Eric von Hippel,et al.  Satisfying Heterogeneous User Needs Via Innovation Toolkits: The Case of Apache Security Software , 2002 .

[24]  Giovanni Dosi,et al.  Finance, innovation and industrial change , 1990 .

[25]  Ian Tonks,et al.  Handbook of The Economics of Innovation and Technical Change , 1996 .

[26]  Youngbae Kim,et al.  Technological Collaboration in the Korean Electronic Parts Industry: Patterns and Key Success Factors , 2003 .