• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.607-641
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• 2017

Recently, there has been an increase in government-wide demand for technological cooperation between government funded research institutes (GFRIs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), while there remain a tension between positive and negative views regarding the support given by GFRIs to encourage the technological innovation of SMEs. Although preceding studies have found that the support given by GFRIs to SMEs tends to have the effect of enhancing the technological innovation outcomes of SMEs, this study examines the question of why the agent that provides technological cooperation to SMEs should be limited to GFRIs. To answer this question, in this study, we first examined the qualitative changes in the external technological cooperation behavior of SMEs over time, from 2007 to 2014. Next, we performed cluster analysis to examine whether there were distinctive characteristics of SMEs that engage in technological cooperation with GFRIs, compared to the various other alternatives available as technological cooperation partners for SMEs. Lastly, to help us identify the characteristics of the companies that technologically cooperate with GFRIs and to facilitate the administrative or practical effort to find companies that would be strong candidates for technological cooperation with GFRIs, we used discriminant analysis to define a discriminant formula for such companies likely to engage in technological cooperation. The results of this study were as follows. First, GFRIs were the most competitive -- as demonstrated by the highest level of satisfaction, etc. - compared to the other alternatives for external technological cooperation available to SMEs. This confirmed the necessity for GFRIs to provide technological cooperation to SMEs. Secondly, the issue of whether the small and medium-sized enterprise had engaged in technological cooperation specifically with GFRIs was found not to be a very significant factor in distinguishing these companies. It was found, however, that SMEs engaged in technological cooperation were distinctive, regardless of the type of institution involved in the technological cooperation. Thirdly, SMEs that were in technological cooperation with GFRIs had the characteristics of being already active in joint research and already familiar with utilizing the systems available for governmental support. The findings of this study offers various insights relevant to establishing national R&D strategies using GFRIs and improving the efficiency of policies and administrative practices intended to help GFRIs assist SMEs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technology Innovation Society Conference
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.1213-1244
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• 2017

This study used a resource-based perspective to analyse the effects of organizational composition on the R&D performance of science and technology government-funded research institutes (GFRIs). We assumed that the composition of each GFRI would eventually be regarded as absorptive capacity and act as a moderating variable between R&D investment and performance. We used a panel generalized least squares (GLS) model with fixed effects to analyse panel data from 115 Korean GFRIs between 2011 and 2015. Our findings show that R&D investment of GFRIs has a direct and positive effect on performance. We also analysed how organizational composition can moderate the effect of R&D investment on performance. The findings provide evidence that organizational composition plays a moderating role between R&D investment and performance. Finally, this study discusses policy implications, its limitations, and also highlights future research directions.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.25-50
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• 2017

Declining research competitiveness and inefficiency are constantly being raised in the National Assembly and the media for the Government-funded Research Institutes(GFRIs), which are highly dependent on government funding. These external stakeholders point to the workforce aging of the GFRIs as one of the main causes of inefficiency. They insist that the aging leads to an increase in labor costs, a discontinuity in research, a decrease in employment of new researchers, and a decrease in research competitiveness. However, the GFRIs argue that the aging is a natural phenomenon due to an increase in the age of recruitment, and even if there is an side effect, it is extremely small or even vice versa. It is interesting that there is no empirical study identifying the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance of the GFRIs, despite the discussion. This study tracked and analyzed the changes of the research performance and the workforce for the five years from 2011 to 2015, and tried to demonstrate the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance. As a result, we confirmed that there is an inverted U-type correlation between the aging and the papers, one of the research performance, and that the optimal age is 44.96 years. Also, we could not find any correlation between the aging and the patents.

• Korean small business review
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.93-115
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• 2020

Government funded research institutes (GFRIs) maintain a cooperative relationship with companies and stably provide their resources through the family company system. They are thereby implementing a demand-oriented support system that responds to the needs of the company. This study analyzed the changes in corporate financial performance depending on the participation in family company system and customized support. For this purpose, 2,229 companies registered with the KITECH during 2015-2017 composed the "Family company group", and 80 companies that participated in the customized support were selected as the "customized support group". The effect of participation on the corporate financial performance was analyzed using the PSM-DID model. The analysis verified that companies in a cooperative relationship with GFRIs had a higher sales growth rate than others. Furthermore, when these companies received additional customized support, their OI and ROE were significantly improved. The value of this study lies in that it quantitatively analyzed the cooperation performance of partner companies following a sustainable SME-GRI relationship. In addition, it provides insight into the strategic support system for SMEs by confirming the necessity of a customized support based on the relationship.