Institution for Regional Innovation System: The Korean case

Abstract

There is an implicit assumption in most regional innovation policy studies that once a policy has been made the policy will be implemented. This assumption is not valid for regional innovation policies formulated in many countries. This assumption rests upon certain political and organization conditions. It is frequently said that regional innovation system in Korea is one of the successful cases because of properly established institution for the implementation of innovation policies. The components of institution for innovation are defined in this article. For the analysis of institution for regional innovation system in Korea, three aspects such as organization, policies & programs, and governance structure were taken into account. Institution for regional innovation system in Korea is analyzed with three aspects: (1) organization for policy implementation, (2) innovation policy, and (3) governance structure. Firstly, organizations for innovation in Korea are composed of three categories such as organizations for policy formulation, organizations for policy implementation and agencies for coordination. Secondly, there are two categories of policies for innovation: (1) policies for the enhancement of national competitiveness and policies for the regional innovation capacity building, and (2) policies for fostering manpower and policy for regulatory reform. Thirdly, innovation governance in Korea is composed of three layer structure: (1) top level governance which is composed of two committee, three ministries and two agencies, (2) local level governance such as one innovation related offices and one center for regulatory reform, and (3) one category of agency for coordination as a regional platform.