• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.397-410
• /
• 2016

Although industrial complexes have played as an engine of the Korean economy for the last 40 years, the majority of industrial complexes shows limitations to the continuous growth such as a lack of innovation capabilities and social capital, conceived as a key to transforming into clusters of innovation. To overcome those problems, the Korean government embarked on the cluster policy from the mid 2000's, focusing on promoting the endogenous development capabilities of individual industrial complexes. Drawing upon the in-depth case study of the Gumi IT cluster, one of the representative large-scale industrial complexes in Korea, the authors conclude that the cluster policy has contributed to making the Gumi IT cluster enhance the capabilities of endogenous development through the facilitation of self-organizing learning communities within the cluster.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.117-134
• /
• 2012

Cluster industries are geographically concentrated and inter-connected by the flow of goods and services, which is stronger than the flow linking them to the rest of the economy. Photonics industries are one of the fastest growing high-tech industries in the world today. Especially, the city of Gwangju(South Korea) industrial cluster, a specialized complex in photonics industry, produced remarkable results in developing high-quality technologies since it launched the cluster program in 2005. Gwangju photonics industrial cluster will be ranked top level of the world photonics industry. In this sense, this study is aimed at proposing a new research model in which corporate performance influence factors of photonics industrial cluster (i.e., business environment, cooperative relationship, and industry-university-research institute partnership) affect absorptive capacity positively, leading to corporate performance eventually. This study developed a research model to explain the Korean photonics industrial cluster effects, and collected 91 survey responses from photonics based company managers in industrial cluster complex. To prove the validity of the proposed research model, PLS analysis is applied with valid 91 questionnaires. By employing PLS technique, the measurement reliability and validity of research variables are tested and the path analysis is conducted to do the hypothesis testing. In brief, the finding of this study suggests that corporate performance influence factors of photonics industrial cluster affect absorptive capacity positively, and corporate performance as well.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.327-338
• /
• 2003

The concept of industrial cluster began with the agglomeration economies occurring in a small scale place, which are mainly drawn from intense networking between companies, universities, research centers and other institutional bodies. Recently, however, as cooperation between autonomous administrative units and between industrial clusters has been more active than ever, there has emerged the concept of extended industrial cluster (EIC) and, subsequently, policy measures for nurturing it. This study focuses on the concept of EIC, mainly in the perspective of the need to adopt it into the industrial cluster literature. The study identifies the raison d'etre of EIC in the respects of the flexibility of geographic range, complementarity and cooperation between functions and regions, scale economies and productivity, and the development stage of industrial clusters. It also suggests how to establish the concept of EIC in the Korean context and how to apply EIC policy in the Korean industrial policy.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.52 no.1
• /
• pp.55-71
• /
• 2017

This paper points out the semantic unclearness of the jargon "cluster" and suggests the substitution of "industrial cluster" for "cluster". Industrial cluster is the intersection of industrial agglomeration and cluster phenomenon while the actual concept of cluster includes not only industry cluster but also political administration cluster, science research cluster, art cluster, religion cluster, education cluster, etc. Partially reconstructing the concept and significance of industry cluster, industrial cluster is a geographic agglomeration of interconnected productional businesses in a particular industry, forming close industrial networks. The advantage of the agglomeration includes reducing the transaction cost between the businesses, promoting technological innovation and dispersion, facilitating the utilization of the professional workforce, sharing and connecting the external customer. Moreover, this paper discusses the range of the industrial cluster and its distinctness from the other similar concepts. There is a need to discriminate it from the other related jargons and to clarify their relationship. In particular, there is a task to eradicate the mixed usage of industrial cluster with the jargons related to space for learning and innovation.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.688-701
• /
• 2014

This article is focused on the agglomeration and decline factors of the footwear industries in Busan metropolitan area from the industrial cluster point of perspective. For the research, 'the components and network of industrial cluster model' are presented which is restructured of M. Porter's cluster model. Moreover, this research have examined the agglomeration and decline process of the footwear industries in Busan area and conducted a survey targeting footwear enterprises in Busan area. In the late 1980's, the footwear industries in Busan area formed the largest footwear industrial cluster in the world. However, the industrial cluster started to decline from early 1990's and now it is reduced in to 1/10 size of the past. The growth factors of Busan footwear industrial cluster include cheap and plentiful labours, penetration of OEM production, entrepreneur spirit, human resources network, government's support and so on. Moreover, the agglomeration of relative companies also created high competitiveness in this cluster. The decay factors are pointed out sudden rise of labour cost, shortage of factory site, rise of land price, alteration of government policy, international relocation of footwear production and growth of overseas industrial cluster. Busan footwear industrial cluster nowadays has declined in its size, but it is the only footwear industrial cluster in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.52 no.2
• /
• pp.287-301
• /
• 2024

Purpose: This paper aims to verify the difference in production resilience between local clusters and regions without clusters before and after a major crisis. Furthermore, this paper aims to identify the clusters' quality factors that impact clusters' shock vulnerability and resilience. Methods: Utilizing open-source data from the US Cluster Mapping platform, this paper compares regions with industrial clusters to those without using the Differences-in-Differences (DID) estimator. It considers the regions with industrial clusters as a treatment group and others as the control group, comparing the period before and after the pandemic. Additionally, the paper examines which cluster factors make a difference in economic resilience during the crisis using Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD). Results: The study finds that regions with industrial clusters show higher production resilience compared to regions without clusters. Moreover, the number of establishments, annual payrolls, and employment can have a positive impact on resilience during the pandemic shock. Conclusion: Though clusters could be vulnerable during the global crisis, industrial clusters can contribute to regional economic development and production resilience in the long-term aspect. Thus, it is required to construct a high-quality local cluster and support it during the economic crisis in the long-term aspect.

• Journal of the Korean Academic Society of Industrial Cluster
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2008

Despite growing recognition of the significance of industrial clusters to regional economic success, there has been only limited attention paid to the effectiveness of cluster policies in old industrial regions. Many of these regions still retain functioning industrial clusters, or have clusters which are adopting new strategies as part of a process of regeneration. This paper argues that the effectiveness of cluster policies in old industrial regions depends upon the extent to which they recognise the evolutionary nature of industrial clusters. It reviews the literature on the transformation of old industrial regions in Europe, and examines how cluster policies have risen to prominence as a policy tool. These strands ate brought together in an exploration of cluster policies in old industrial regions. A brief case study is presented of the evolution of the steel industry supply chain in north east England. The conclusions focus upon the data requirements that form a starting point for informed policy intervention into presses of cluster evolution.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.225-235
• /
• 2006

Not a few nations have tried to copy the success of Silicon Valley since 1980's. Research of information communication industry cluster has emerged in Korea since 1990. In this background this paper thoroughly reviewed scholarly literature related to industry cluster with an attempt to extract dominant factors for cluster formation, and designed a survey instrument to measure the status-quo of cluster formation of software industry in Chungbuk Province Korea, as an example. Based on the results from statistical analysis a strategic scheme was proposed to propel software industry cluster formation in the region.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.1675-1683
• /
• 2011

The cluster project in Korea has restructured to develop the cluster into a core engine for the pan-regional development policy and connect industrial parks across the country. Korean government has made great efforts to attract research institutes, support organizations and universities in industrial parks and enhance growth potential through a close cooperation network. Especially A mini-cluster is an integrated group joined by companies, universities and research institutes and support organizations. It has been developing business opportunities through industry-academia-research cooperation and providing assistance through network activities. Mini clusters have implemented a variety of network activities. This paper proposed three strategies to accomplish self-sustainable growth of mini-clusters. First of all, mini-cluster needs to provide useful contents that can attract the participation of members. Then it is necessary to promote mini-cluster initiative. Finally, mini-clusters need to make up a cooperative culture.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.19-38
• /
• 2019

The Seosan-Daesan Port is closest to the major ports of China; hence, it is recognized as the ideal port for trade with China. Well-developed industrial infrastructure in its hinterland, including petrochemical, automotive, and electronic component complexes and recent developments of port facilities that aim to strengthen its function as a commercial port clearly highlight the necessity to develop it as a comprehensive port by building a marine industrial cluster. In this study, prerequisites for marine industrial cluster development in Seosan-Daesan Port are identified; they include the following. First, the conditions to be met for being designated a marine industrial cluster should be amended; Second, the central government should delegate authority to local governments to ensure the development of marine industries; Third, changes related to marine industrial cluster development in the governance structure of local governments (Seosan City and Chungnam Province) are required; and Last, a consultative body should be established to facilitate discussions on developing a marine industrial cluster in Seosan-Daesan Port and build public consensus.