An innovation network analysis of science clusters in South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract

Innovation develops within a diverse group of social entities that form an interwoven structure. The role and relations of regional entities within clusters have become a critical point of innovation due to the emphasis of globalization on the importance of regional competitiveness. In this study, we model such interactions via the Triple Helix framework, which can be used to demonstrate the collaborative relations of three entities (university, industry, and government) in an innovation system. This framework allows this research to diagnose the roles and relations of regional innovation institutions and define the characteristics of the innovation models for science parks in South Korea and Taiwan; subsequently, this research quantitatively measures two regional university–industry–government network densities to find collaborative knowledge generation. Second, network centrality is measured in order to analyse the regional innovation participations’ roles of collaboration. Finally, the status of cluster performance is qualitatively compared and related to collaboration networks. This study presents an analysis of the structure and position (qualitatively and quantitatively) of regional innovation institutions by applying a Triple Helix model. This case analysis also provides regional innovation policy implications to design regional innovation systems for developing countries.