• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.43-64
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• 2022

Exploring innovations for latecomers to catch up has been a popular concern in industry and academia. Over the last decade, more and more East Asian latecomer firms have moved beyond imitation and are delivering innovative products and services to the market. However, the semiconductor latecomers from China have limited success in catching up with more mature semiconductor firms. Our study examines how semiconductor latecomers to break through the latecomer's dilemma by innovation and achieve catch-up. We use a single-case approach for the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) vertical development process to analysis its innovation path of catching up. The study's results showed that SMIC relied on the government's policy and funding support, and based on the strategic endurance of entrepreneurs, it persisted in technology R&D investment and independent innovation for 20 years. SMIC finally smashed the dilemma of latecomers and successfully achieved catch-up. With these findings, we believe that the path of catching up innovation for semiconductor latecomers should be equipped with independent innovation of technology, strategic leadership of entrepreneurs and support of government policies. As these factors are combined, latecomer firms' position is expected to rise and catch-up will become visible. Our study contributes to some enlightenment on the innovation path for latecomers in China and global semiconductors to achieve their catch-up.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.103-127
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• 2015

This paper investigates the two academic revolutions of the Korean higher education system. Since economic catch-up began in the 1960s, Korea has strongly encouraged the activities of its higher education system to serve industrial development as it has progressed through various developmental stages. At the 'strong regulation' stage, universities focused on the provision of technicians. As the need for higher education grew, the 'massive expansion' stage emerged. Finally, most recently, university research and its direct contribution to the economy have been invigorated by strong governmental support. Possibly, this is due to the fact that the Korean government has strongly controlled not only industry but also academia. As long as other East Asian universities have similar conditions to those of the development of Korean universities, we can generalise this model not only to universities in other East Asian countries, but also to universities in other rapid catch-up countries.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.362-377
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• 2019

Commercializing universities' R&D outputs is a major management challenge and there are limited studies to describe this phenomenon from the perspective of companies' management. Experiences of six small and medium size and four large companies' management's respondents are gathered through semi-structured face-toface interviews. Twelve critical success factors revealed by the respondents, namely R&D product and market readiness, good partnership with university, researcher's motivationand commitment, availability of resources, government support and motivation, control and ownership of intellectual property rights, university's management support, entrepreneurial culture in the university, an open communication and trusting relationship, researchers' skills, a risk taking attitude, and existence of performance measures as important to commercialize the universities' R&D outputs in Malaysia. The different views from the management of small and medium size, and large companies are also discussed in this study.

• Journal of Industrial Convergence
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2016

A technopark is an industrial and technological complex where personal, material and technological resources, scattered to businesses, academic institutions, research facilities and governments are gathered into a single place. Technopark's role is facets. The aim of this study is to offer new policy services for firms by utilizing the exploratory methodology for Chungnam Technopark's performance for three year (2011 ~2013). Through the findings, this study suggests that policy support for firm's growth in Chung Nam Region have been effective and fruitful in terms of total sale and increase of employees. But, technological performance measured by patents has not enough to catch the innovation. Chungnam Technopark should be more focused on technological policy supports including R&D as well as commercialization. Ultimately in order to have sustainabilities for own firm's growth, firms should keep going on ceaseless create the new technological performance. In that sense, for regional specific industry Technopark's role has been critical for not only firm's current growth but firm's innovation competency.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2014

Despite a commonly held belief that standards obstruct innovation, recent research shows that they can actually play critical roles in supporting various activities of technological innovation. Thus, providing an innovation-friendly environment through standardization has been gaining much attention in recent years; however, there is as yet limited understanding, due to complex dynamics and high uncertainties associated with innovation, as well as a variety of different types and functions of standards with various stakeholders involved. The problem becomes even more challenging for standardization in highly complex systems, such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems, where a large number of domains and components are involved, along with various types of stakeholders. In order to deal with such complexity and variations, a systematic approach of standardization roadmapping has been used in many technology-leading countries as a strategic policy tool for supporting effective management of standardization. Despite its wide adoption, the current understanding of standardization roadmapping is somewhat limited, leaving significant challenges for policymakers and standards organizations in terms of how to structure and manage roadmapping exercises, and how the government should get involved. In this regard, the current research explores existing standardization roadmaps in various contexts related to ICT systems (ICT in Korea, Smart Grid in the US, and electromobility in Germany), as there is a particular need for systematic development of strategies for such complex systems of ICT. Focusing on various aspects of standardization roadmapping exercises such as their structures, processes, and participants, their common features and key characteristics are identified. Comparing these roadmaps also reveal distinct differences between standardization roadmapping approaches adopted by different countries in different contexts. Based on lessons learnt from existing practices, the study finally provides insight for the Korean ICT standards community on the ways in which their standardization roadmapping approach can be improved to support anticipatory management of standardization activities more effectively. It is expected that the current research can not only provide increased understanding of standardization roadmaps, but also help policymakers and standards organizations to develop more effective strategies for supporting innovation through the systematic management of standardization.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.373-388
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• 2018

Recently, the importance of technological innovation has increased for securing competitiveness and for the survival of companies. On the other hand, obstacles that enterprises face during the course of technological innovation have diversified. Through prior studies, various innovation sources and government support systems are considered important factors in resolving these obstacles as well as securing technological innovation and competitiveness. However, these studies face criticism concerning various relationships between the influencing factors and the use of simple causal models. In this study, the effects on performance were analyzed based on a structural equation model. For analysis, 1,251 observed values were collected from the "2014 Korean Innovation Survey: Manufacturing Sector". Results found that obstacles to technological innovation in terms of fund, capacity and market promote the use of innovation sources and government support programs. On the other hand, various innovation sources and government support systems utilized by corporations have positively influenced technological innovation performance. As expected, among these obstacles, financial limitation had the greatest negative effect on innovation.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.101-130
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• 2023

The increasing cost, and demand for, household energy has increased attention to the phenomena of energy burdens. Despite this increased attention, a lack of consensus remains in pinpointing the strongest predictors, and geographic differences, that exist within the energy ecosystem. This study addresses this gap by utilizing a series of dummy variable regressions across cities, suburbs, and rural areas within Erie County, New York-a county noted to have particularly high energy burdens. Specifically, three types of predictor sets were incorporated into the methodology: a set of socioeconomic variables, physical variables, and a combination of both variable sets. The results of this study suggest that cities tend to have the highest electricity burdens. Despite the aging infrastructure in Erie County, high energy burdens were driven primarily by socioeconomic factors such as housing cost burden and poverty status. Lastly, this study explores various planning and policy implications Erie County can utilize to reduce energy burdens. In turn, this study highlights the importance of focusing policy efforts on existing social service programs to provide support to the region's neediest households.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.207-219
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• 2019

The international trends in activities of government R&D performance measurement is evolving into evidence-based approach to support the verification of objective policy implementation. The European Commission has been implementing KETs (Key Enabling Technologies) policy that incubates nanotech based emerging technologies to support the fourth industrial revolution/revitalization of high-tech manufacturing, and resulting innovations are quantified by KETs Observatory project. The European Commission also built Innovation Radar system that monitors potentially innovative projects within FP7 and Horizon2020 by data analysis. The United States is also upgrading its Federal RePORTER system to quantitatively monitor federal R&D investments with outcomes (including nanotechnology). In the field of Korean nanotechnology, basic statistical data by analyzing NTIS (National Science & Technology Information Service) information is applied in policy field. Developing innovation measurement methodology beyond basic statistical analysis is an international policy issue, and a long-term R&D investment area of a government. The objective of this model study is to quantify the innovation potential of nano R&D investments conducted by Korea government, using input-output based efficiency measurement model and NTIS (National Science & Technology Information Service) that is comprehensive data portal for national R&D investments/outcomes including nanotechnology.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.564-580
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• 2018

The creation of academic start-up firms is an important and practical issue in the management of technology in Japan. The present study designs a model for creating academic start-up firms that fits into the social context. It focuses on the case of FIRST Program, an initiative that consists of 30 projects in innovative arenas, analyses the presence of large-scale public funding, and investigates the role of venture capitalists as support personnel in each project. As a result, the presence and significance of 'long-term escort' by an 'entrepreneurial venture capitalist (EP-VCist)' were confirmed as common features across the cases observed. EP-VCist refers to a person who can maintain and fulfil dual roles at a university and a venture capital firm, and who can take the lead throughout the venturing process as a risk taker. 'Long-term escort' is a form of support that reduces risks in the venturing process by supporting university researchers in the pre-entrepreneurial stage and by exerting a robust bridging role between a university and an industry.

• World Technopolis Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-134
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• 2018

The purpose of this article is to introduce and describe the case of Fukuoka Next-generation Social System Creation Hub based on the conceptual framework of regional innovation platform strategy. In short, it is a "government-issued" regional innovation platform strategy to improve innovativeness with limited creative capital through "borrowing" not money but network, wisdom, know-how, and ideas from each other between some stakeholder groups in a region. The Fukuoka Industry, Science & Technology Foundation, which is the coordinating institution of the whole program, plays the role of a platformer to unify various projects into the program crossing borders between stakeholder groups for building regional innovation platforms that lends intensive support to feedback loops between the program facilitator and its partners in the program. Thanks to being a government-issued one, it could be tied together with some wide ranging issues of policy on social innovations, such as the "low carbon society" or the "health and longevity society." But at the same time, it is a concern that many regional research institutions that have innovative potential and diverse ideas become governed by the platform without their noticing it and dealt with in the same way based on "selected" and "designated" strategic goals. Therefore, it seems that a regional innovation platform strategy is a kind of "double-edged sword" in public policy in the era of "panopticism of bureaucratic society" in Japan.