• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.149-163
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• 2023

The policy of promoting innovation clusters aims to enhance the competitiveness of industries by strengthening the linkages between industry sectors and research sectors in specific regions. In Korea, after the concept of innovation clusters was introduced by the OECD in 1997, Korean government actively pursued policies based on this concept in the fields of industry, region, and science and technology. Previous policies and research on the activation of innovation clusters have tended to focus on the exchange and collaboration among members. However, this study focused on enhancing the competitiveness of industries and regions, in other words, strengthening the competitiveness of companies, which is the fundamental reason for fostering innovative clusters. Accordingly, this study aimed to analyze the impact of factors activating innovation clusters on the business performance of SMEs located in the Daedeok Innopolis. To achieve this, based on the essential concept of innovation clusters such as industrial agglomeration factors, networking factors, innovation generation factors, the study derived factors for activating innovation clusters and verified hypotheses using the survey results of 175 companies. Among the factors activating innovation clusters, industrial agglomeration and innovation generation were found to have a positive impact on the business performance of companies. However, networking factors were analyzed to have no significant influence on the business performance of companies. This study differentiates itself by addressing the factors for activating innovation clusters through empirical analysis, unlike previous case-based studies. Furthermore, considering the difference between intuitive judgments on networking factors in innovation clusters and their actual impact on business performance, the study raised the practical significance of conducting a comprehensive examination from various perspectives, such as the socially and culturally embedded structures in the region, the characteristics of specialized industries, and the needs of cluster members, to develop more effective policies for innovation clusters.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.132-153
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• 2015

Rural enterprise clusters in India have often been characterized by low-end products, poor income earning options and a near-absence of innovativeness. This has implied limited market access, inadequate organization of production and distancing from sources of formal knowledge. Policy neglect of rural industrialization notwithstanding this paper explores the nature of institutional constraints to innovation through intensive case studies of five rural artisan clusters (handlooms and handicrafts) in as many Indian states. Whether it relates to access to loan finance or technology support or linking to markets, the formal institutions (public or private) have been distanced by informality that typifies most rural enterprise clusters. An obsession with a sectoral approach to cluster development has negated addressing infirmities of the space of enterprise, even as scope for learning from some Asian economies in rural enterprise promotion exists. The paper also enquires if the innovation systems have been inclusive and pro-poor.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.135-155
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• 2022

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine how a broad palette of government support measures and firms' membership in government-developed clusters are related to firms' openness in innovation processes. Design/methodology/approach - Empirically, this study analyzes the Korea Innovation Survey 2018 data on the innovation activities of 1,450 Korean R&D-active manufacturing firms in a three-year period from 2015 through 2017. Findings - The results suggest that firms engage in open innovation to a greater extent--as measured by the breadth of external collaborating partners and of the utilized external sources of knowledge--when they are provided with a broader palette of government support measures and are located in government-developed clusters. However, the effect of diverse government support measures is attenuated for firms located in these clusters. Research implications or Originality - This study contributes to the innovation literature by illuminating how firms' open innovation can be understood in a national innovation system. Moreover, it provides valuable implications for firms seeking to obtain government support and collaborate with others.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.808-841
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• 2007

Recently some researchers started to discuss the fundamental limitations of geographical innovation clusters. With the rapid development of information and telecommunication technologies, a new concept of virtual innovation cluster is emerging in the advanced countries an alternative to overcome the limitations of geographical clusters. In this context, this study is designed as a pilot study to verify limitations of and issues with geographical innovation cluster through a survey and review the possible application of virtual innovation cluster as an alternative to geographical innovation cluster. Topics covered in this study include; 1) What are the limitations and/or issues with geographical clusters? 2) Can these limitations of and issues with geographical innovation cluster be overcome with virtual innovation cluster? 3) What is the government policy direction to ensure effective utilization of virtual innovation clusters? To answer these questions, this study adopted various research techniques including literature reviews, surveys, case studies, and expert interviews. Especially, a survey was conducted to diagnose the limitations of geographical innovation cluster policy and to understand the possibility of applying virtual innovation clusters. Finally, the significances and limitations of the study are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 2002.06a
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• pp.238-256
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• 2002

Competitiveness of a nation can be explained by the concept of national innovation systems(NIS). As components of NIS, industry clusters become the issue in analysing innovative activity of an economy. Innovative clusters can be identified by the innovation survey or other economic activity data. Input-output Table was used widely as a tool for quantitative analysis, This paper classifies seven clusters in Korean industry based on inter-industries trade of intermediary goods and services, Maximizing procedure method is used in analysing input-output table. Identified clusters are Textiles/chemicals, Construction/Material, Instrument/Equipment, Automobile, Services, Energy, and Agriculture/Food cluster, Among these clusters, some different characteristics in R&D portfolios are detected. R&D investment characteristics of each cluster give us significant implications in understanding innovative dynamics of Korean industry.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.63-79
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• 2012

Regional innovation systems and clusters represent a fashionable conceptual basis for regional innovation policies in many industrialized countries (including South Korea). Due to questions related to climate change and environment-friendly energy production, the green industry has been increasingly discussed in relation to regional innovation systems and clusters. This explorative paper analyzes these discussions and critically examines the emergence of green clusters in South Korea based on the case of the wind power cluster in Jeonbuk Province. It tentatively concludes that the role of the central government is too powerful and the role of regional actors (policy-makers and entrepreneurs) is too weak for the successful emergence of green clusters.

• Journal of the Korean Academic Society of Industrial Cluster
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.28-43
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• 2008

This paper searches for a potential path of Korean clusters to be competitive global innovation clusters (CGICs) and provides appropriate policy interventions to promote the cluster formation process in Korea. It argues that clusters which have their distinctive competitiveness are created as the cluster members are collectively responding to the switching forces in a rapidly changing capitalist economy. The Korean economy has acquired various assets through the rapid economic progress and these can be efficiently utilized for the creation of globally leading clusters in Korea. The process is not just copying the one and only Silicon Valley model but to create the distinguished Korean model of locally embedded innovation. That requires a recreation process of innovation clusters in Korea.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.301-319
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• 2011

This research focused on the strategy consulting of the 'Pankyo Technovalley' for the formation of the innovation clusters The study was performed based on both theoretical study and related qualitative study approaches. Particularly, 'scenario planning' as a foresight method was used for the strategy formulation of the innovation clusters. The major determinants for the success of the formation of the innovation clusters can be summarized as follows; the enhancement of the service of the host institution of clusters, the alignment of the national cluster policy with the strategy of the host institution and the networks of the clusters. In terms of the needs of times, this study regarding the strategy for the formation of the innovation clusters is anticipated to be a good reference for the R&D organizations and technology cluster participants in coming years.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.195-214
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• 2003

Sweden's regional innovation system is built mainly on innovative clusters, several of them - in automobile, steel, new materials, information and telecommunication, and bioscience - world-class. Most successful clusters were developed at local bases imbued with local history. In fact, a cluster's competitiveness is intimately related to its closeness of fit with its local environment. Geographically dispersed clusters in Sweden - some national, others local, and some local but deemed members of a national cluster as well - have already created many new competitive products and services. In 2001, Sweden has eight national and nine regional clusters, and envisioned eleven national and five regional clusters more. The experience of Swedish clusters indicate several elements that determine the ability of cluster policies to promote and strengthen regional economic growth. Cluster policies require strong public sector support, particularly in the form of providing basic national conditions. Regional cluster policies place new demands on national and regional industrial policies. All policies must be closely interwoven without compromising their primary allegiance to their respective areas.

• World Technopolis Review
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.104-119
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• 2019

Innovation clusters are essential in the economic development of many developed countries across the world. While they present ways for under-developed and developing countries to grow their economies, fully operational innovation clusters are yet to be established in Nigeria. Many experts argue that learning from experience is an effective way of galvanizing economic development. Therefore, in this study, an empirical analysis involving a multi-variable quantitative analysis was used to examine the factors that influence the performance of the Daedeok Innopolis Innovation Cluster (South Korea). The results obtained show that the investment in education, Research and Development (R&D), labor capacity of key players within the innovation cluster, and the transfer of technology (within the cluster) were essential factors that influence the performance of the Daedeok Innopolis Innovation Cluster.