Post catch-up system transition failure: the case of ICT technology development in Korea

Choung, Jae‐Yong; Hwang, Hye-Ran; Choi, Jun Kyun

doi:10.1080/19761597.2016.1207422

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…The top-down policy approach appears to have worked better for several Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) in the early stages of catch-up [62,65], but it has not served them well in transitioning to the frontier [66]. Bottom-up policy approaches are more conducive for NSIs near the technology frontier since they allow their actors the flexibility to follow a variety of approaches to innovate and commercialize.…”

Section: Science and Technology Policy Orientation And Institutional mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Economic Growth and the Adaptability of a National System of Innovation: A Socio-Cognitive Explanation for South Korea’s Mired Technology Transfer and Commercialization Process

Hameed¹,

Staden

Kwon

2018

Sustainability

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Sustainable economic growth is closely linked to a national system of innovation's (NSI) adaptability. The NSI of a country in catch-up mode is different than one at the technology frontier. In this exploratory paper we use a socio-cognitive approach to demonstrate that shared mental models (SMMs) need to change with the evolution of a NSI to sustain growth. For South Korea in particular, this insight offers a way for it realize better technology transfer and commercialization (TTC) performance and a new cognitive model for its TTC teams to transition to and operate at the technology frontier. We use cognitive mapping techniques to interpret the interviews of teams in South Korea's public research institutes active in TTC. Their SMMs reveal that a top-down policy for catching-up NSIs reinforces SMMs around a linear commercialization process. Alternatively, the participatory policy approach of frontier innovation systems supports interaction and the active learning of their actors' SMMs. This affords a wider variety of innovation and commercialization processes. Consequently, a policy of transitioning NSIs that remains top-down freezes TTC teams in their existing SMMs fettering growth. By extension, as a transitioning NSI, South Korea should adopt policy that reconfigures its existing SMMs to encourage a more open approach to TTC.

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Section: Science and Technology Policy Orientation And Institutional mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Economic Growth and the Adaptability of a National System of Innovation: A Socio-Cognitive Explanation for South Korea’s Mired Technology Transfer and Commercialization Process

Hameed¹,

Staden

Kwon

2018

Sustainability

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“…Telecommunications service penetration was lower than Spain's (Table 3). Low profitability correlated with Korea's low income per capita, which was 22 percent of the US' in 1985 (Maddison Project Database 2018) but was also consistent with KT's reputation as a bureaucratic and inefficient organisation (Kim 1993, Choung et al 2016.…”

Section: Koreamentioning

confidence: 69%

“…Korea's coordination model found continuity through development of the 3G version of CDMA starting in 1996. However, the liberalisation of telecommunications services and the adoption of GSM by most countries made it difficult for the government to subordinate the interests of mobile operators to those of the electronics industry, causing coordination to falter (Choung et al 2016). Rather than abandoning its model, Korea changed its configuration.…”

Section: From Hierarchical To Nonhierarchical Coordinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Korea's coordination model benefited manufacturers but imposed a heavy burden on the incumbent. The TDX project required an annual workforce of 3,320 and involved approximately 1 billion dollars in R&D costs (Choung et al 2016). With its capital tightly committed to the national market and constraint to provide fixed line services, KT failed to gain a strong foothold in mobile telephony and sold its mobile subsidiary to the SK group in 1993.…”

Section: Telecommunications Services and Upgradingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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State-firm Coordination and Upgrading in Spain's and Korea's ICT Industries

Calvo

2020

New Political Economy

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Generating sustainable growth and reaching advanced economy status Political economy; state depend on the ability of countries to host local, globally competitive activism; business firms in skill-, capital-, and knowledgeintensive industries. However, few government relationships; countries succeed. This paper asks whether state activism is necessary to industrial upgrading; late development foster economic transformation at high levels of complexity in the globalisation era, and if so, what strategies are effective. Using evidence from Spain's and Korea's ICT industries since the 1980s, the paper argues that state-firm coordination remains necessary to reach the efficiency frontier in complex industries. However, coordination has shifted from hierarchical structures to nonhierarchical models in which states and firms develop mutually agreed-upon working rules to reach beneficial outcomes. Nonhierarchical coordination may involve adopting different institutional configurations, depending on the identities and capabilities of firms and national governments and on the nature of linkages with other nations. These linkages may lead to alternative pathways to upgrading and diverse productive specialisations.

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“…The overall findings, therefore, confirm that cooperation within TTC teams has a role in explaining the sub-optimal technology commercialization performance of South Korea. These confirmations and negations of inter-relationships noted above suggest that the dynamic of South Korean TTC is problematic, and draws into question the sustainability of South Korea's technology-driven economic development as it moves toward the technology frontier [80]. However, before turning to a discussion on theoretical and policy implications in the next subsection, it is important to stress at this point that this research based on a sociological perspective has identified a problem with Korean TTC and the necessity for change in its related policies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Impediments to Sustaining South Korea’s Economic Development: Pathologies of Cooperation in Intra-Team Dynamics of Technology Commercialization

2019

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Technology innovation and commercialization have been the cornerstone of South Korea’s remarkable economic development. In this paper, we argue that South Korea’s technology-based economic development is unsustainable without fundamental changes in its technology policy-making and implementation approaches. Developed countries’ systems of innovation (SI) operating at the technology frontier have increasingly embraced bottom-up technology policy, making them more reliant on cooperation among teams at the project level. Drawing on Social Interdependence Theory, this research finds that the intra-team dynamics of South Korea’s technology transfer and commercialization (TTC) process negatively impacts on not only current TTC projects, but also the transition of South Korean SI toward an integrative policy approach that fosters innovation and commercialization. It is clear that the top-down policy-making model supportive of linear models of innovation that South Korea has relied on for so long needs to be replaced. However, the current intra-team dynamics of TTC teams may continue to hinder this transition. While Korean TTC teams perceive themselves to be cooperative and effective in general, there is a pronounced lack of cathexis which undermines their cooperation. This may be an impediment to the success of technology commercialization teams and their projects. Further research is warranted to confirm this finding and explore the extent to which this problem hinders the sustained technology-led development of South Korea.

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Post catch-up system transition failure: the case of ICT technology development in Korea

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Sustainable Economic Growth and the Adaptability of a National System of Innovation: A Socio-Cognitive Explanation for South Korea’s Mired Technology Transfer and Commercialization Process

Sustainable Economic Growth and the Adaptability of a National System of Innovation: A Socio-Cognitive Explanation for South Korea’s Mired Technology Transfer and Commercialization Process

State-firm Coordination and Upgrading in Spain's and Korea's ICT Industries

Impediments to Sustaining South Korea’s Economic Development: Pathologies of Cooperation in Intra-Team Dynamics of Technology Commercialization

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