Workforce Composition of Public R&D and Performance: Evidence from Korean Government-Funded Research Institutes

Abstract

How do the organizational attributes of public R&D organizations affect their performance? Recent researchers have focused on the relationship between R&D investments and performance or efficiency, and others suggest that performance may be affected by organizational factors. However, we focus on the attributes of R&D workforce excellence and diversity of R&D workforce, which can affect the performance of public R&D organizations. Therefore, we conduct a panel negative binomial regression and a focus group interview after empirical analysis to derive interpretations and implications. The results show that the effects of the diversity and excellence of an R&D workforce can vary depending on the type of performance: scientific, technological, or social. Overall, we call for a human resources and resource-based approach to consider the importance of R&D workforce composition, specifically diversity and excellence, in evaluating the performance of public R&D organizations.

Exploring the Factors Affecting Technology Transfer in Government-Funded Research Institutes: The Korean Case

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, most research has been conducted with a focus on universities [8,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17], and studies on factors affecting technology transfer in government-funded research institutes (GRIs) are rare. GRIs are an important subject to analyze in terms of technology transfer because they are dedicated to research on innovation, such as strategic technology development for economic growth and science and technology advancement [18,19]. To this end, it is important to identify how technology transfer operates in GRI settings, which is currently relatively unknown.…”