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Abstract
This study is a starting point to analyze South Korean national innovation systems (KNIS) using big data and provide insights for policy makers regarding how they implement the dynamic process of innovation systems. It examines KNIS that has developed over the past 14 years from 2003 to 2016 during the governments of Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak, and Park Geun-hye. The aim of this study is to evaluate the KNIS in three ways. The first way is to analyze the NIS of the three governments based on data of 470,000 national research and development (R&D) projects, following which the second way is to compare innovative outcomes of the three governments. The last way is to figure out the characteristics of the KNIS in innovative performance. Our analysis reveals that the KNIS was developed and evolved from 2003 to 2008, maintained until 2012, and gradually declined, even though national R&D investment increased for 14 years. Empirical evidence highlights that policies implemented for more than a decade do not effectively link to economic outcomes, resulting in an imbalance between innovation input and innovation output. This study further argues that the use of NIS concept in South Korea seems to be skewed towards measuring national performance from a narrower perspective.
Highlights
This study is consistent with the views of Freeman (1982, 1987) [1,2] at the beginning of discussions about national innovation systems (NISs)
This study examined the history of Korean national innovation system (KNIS) for 14 years based on a dataset of 470,000 national research and development (R&D) projects
The result shows that the KNIS evolved during the Roh government, persisted through the beginning of the Lee government into 2008, and maintained itself until the end of Lee’s term
Summary
This study is consistent with the views of Freeman (1982, 1987) [1,2] at the beginning of discussions about national innovation systems (NISs). Since the 2000s, South Korea has been making efforts to build the NIS to achieve technological innovation and thereby increase economic growth at the national level. NIS can be viewed as an institutional effort to recognize the state as an organic system and effectively promote innovation for the economic development of a country. Freeman (1987: 1) [2] who presented the concept of NIS in his book on Japan, argued that it is ‘the institutional network between the public and private sector organizations to carry out related activities and interactions to create, introduce, revise, and advance new technology.’. Freeman analyzed Japan’s rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 1980s as a result of policies in the Japanese system in which institutions, such as the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry played a significant role in facilitating innovation and connecting it to national performance. There is no single definition of NIS, Lundvall (1988, 1992) [3,7] defined NIS as: ‘ . . . constituted by elements and relationships which interact in the production, diffusion and use of new, and economically useful knowledge . . . a national system encompasses elements and relationships, either located within or rooted inside the borders of a national state.’ In a similar vein, Metcalfe (1995) [8] defined NIS as a system of interconnected institutions that jointly and individually contribute
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