Technological catch-up and the role of universities: South Korea’s innovation-based growth explained through the Corporate Helix model

Myung-Hwan Cho

doi:10.1186/s40604-014-0002-1

Abstract

Linkages between industry and university have become crucial for knowledge discovery and driving industrialization within fast-paced global competition and technological evolution. This study offers a pair-wise cross-case analysis of the transitioning of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) to become entrepreneurial universities through the Corporate Helix model. POSTECH and SKKU demonstrated divergent routes but convergent outcomes in technological catch-up during the double helix formation stage. Through the relationship triad POSTECH shares with the Industry and Government after being established by Pohang Steel Company, it has been committed to launching Korea into the forefront of innovative science and technology in the twenty-first century. As a result of its acquisition and intensive investment from Samsung for almost over two decades, SKKU has become one of the top schools in South Korea while interacting closely with the industry and government to cultivate the efficacy of South Korea’s national innovation system. The Corporate Helix model takes into account the university which lacks the resources and capability to become entrepreneurial and to participate in a nation’s technological catch-up to innovation-based growth. The cases of POSTECH and SKKU offer key propositions that a university can be established or acquired by the industry and through this partnership undergo transformation to become entrepreneurial. I25, O31, O38

Highlights

The function of the university as a source of new knowledge has grown in significance over the years given the emergence of the knowledge-based economy (Etzkowitz et al 2000; Eom and Lee 2010)
Double helix formation of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) In order to understand the evolutionary cycle of the university within the Corporate Helix model during the double helix formation, three stages are proposed: the concession stage, the inauguration stage, and the assimilation stage
The underlying framework for the study that allowed for the exploration and classification of the Corporate Helix model, as well as the resulting propositions for the model, is based on the triple helix studies by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1997), Universities and the Global Knowledge Economy: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations

Summary

Introduction

The function of the university as a source of new knowledge has grown in significance over the years given the emergence of the knowledge-based economy (Etzkowitz et al 2000; Eom and Lee 2010). The linkages of industry to university become necessary for knowledge discovery and for driving industrialization within fast-paced global competition and technological evolution (Bettis and Hitt 1995; Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1997; Hwang et al 2003). Two contrasting views exist with regards to the role of a university, i.e., the Triple Helix thesis and the New Economics of Science (Eom and Lee 2010). The industryuniversity-government Triple Helix model introduced by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1997) gives emphasis to both social and economic roles of the university. Within the Triple Helix model, it is necessary for the university to have direct established linkages with industry so as to allow for maximum industrialization of knowledge. A ‘third mission’ of the university is highlighted within the context of the university serving economic development apart from only teaching and research (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion