Research on Science, Technology & Society in Korea: A Critical Review (과학기술과 사회 연구의 현황과 과제)
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- Journal of Technology Innovation
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- v.25 no.3
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- pp.155-195
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- 2017
The goal of the present study is reviewing the literature on the scientific community and also on science, technology & society to increase interactions between innovation studies and social studies of science and technology. Up until now, various empirical studies on Korean scientists and engineers have been concentrated on researchers at universities, while they have paid inadequate attention to researchers at state-funded research institutes and private companies. In addition, these studies have tended to use concepts in Western academia to elucidate Korean cases. On the other hand, recent empirical researches on the effects of the evaluation systems in universities, PBS system, and the network of school ties suggest that these topics may reveal the unique characteristics of Korean scientific community. Empirical studies on the scientific community have also shown that Korean research institutes and researchers who are in charge of innovation in Korea have demonstrated a tendency to conform to the government's guidance due to long experiences of state-led R&D and nationalism. Research on science, technology and society has viewed the participation of citizens in science and technology as a way toward science and technology democracy, and tended to have a strong practical orientation. However, there has been a relatively small amount of research on how citizen participation influences the direction and content of technological innovation. Also, although, from the viewpoint of technological innovation, how participation of citizens in science and technology can contribute to knowledge production and innovation is a critical issue, relatively small numbers of case studies on this subject have been conducted. Therefore, as the scholars who have emphasized the democracy of science and technology have actually experimented with various ways of citizen participation, innovation researchers may have to design and implement citizen participation through which citizens' local knowledge can contribute to technological innovation.
Sex education is necessary for the youth that they should have an adequate sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors in their adolescent period. Four major objectives of this study are as follows; 1. To know the level of sexual knowledge of commercial girl's high school students in Seoul. 2. To know their actual state for the attitudes and behaviors toward sex. 3. To compare the sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of day time school students with those of night time school students. 4. To compare the factors associated with their sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors with the individual level. Data were collected on 986 students in Seoul from April 1 to April 10, 1983. As the result of this survey, the following conclusions were obtained. 1. The level of sexual knowledge. (1) The level of knowledge of day time high school students about the physiology of female and pregnancy is shown higher than those of night time students. 64.2% of the respondents are aware of the organ producing ovum. 56.4% the ovulation period. 95.6% the cause of pregnancy. 74.5% the pregnantable period and 12.7% the place of fetilization. (2) Out of 986 respondents. 71.8% knew about contraceptive method correctly, and day time school students knew litter better than night time school students, by showing 73.9% and 69.7% respectively. They knew about contraceptive method with 'oral pills'. 'menstrual cycles', 'condoms'. and 'loops' in the same order. 3) Kinds of veneral disease was correctly known by 37.9%. Day time students knew much better than night time school students. by showing 67.8% and 7.9%. respectively. Transmission method of veneral disease was correctly known by 28.3%. Day time students knew much better than night time students, by showing 51.2% and 5.3%, respectively. (4) The major information source of sexual knowledge was 'book and magazine' (39.9%) and 'friends' (27.4%). 2. Actual state of attitudes and behaviors toward sex. (1) Out of 986 respondents, 84.0% answered that premarital purity should be kept. (2) Out of 986 respondents, 60.8% had an acquaintance of the opposite sex. 45.2% of students with opposite sex reported introduction of their friends as the main channel of making an acquaintance of the opposite sex. (3) Of those who responded to this study 13.8% reported having masturbation, 21.5% kissing, 6.2% petting and 3.7% sex intercourse. (4) 64.8% had sexual problems, which was mensturance (27.2%), aquaintance of the opposite sex (25.4%). The main method to solve the problems were consultation with 'friends' and 'books and magazine' percentage being 39.1% and 30.8%, respectively, whereas very small students discussed with 'teachers' and 'parents' percentages being 0.3% and 5.9%, respectively. (5) Out of 986 respondents, 62.2% had experience in educating about sex, the percentage of day time school was higher than that of night time school. (6) 88.2% of students wanted sex education in school, which were 'general information about sex' (35.4%), 'sexual morality and solution of sexual desire' (18.5%), 'aquaintance of the opposite sex' (13.3%) and 'marriage and role of man and woman' (12.4%) in the same order. They wanted to be instructed about sexes in the lecture of physical education, home economics, biology, military training (59.9%), regular curriculum (17.5%), special lecture (16.9%) and by the counselor or school nurse (5.7%). 3. Analyse concerning the factors about the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. (1) The better school record was, the higher the level of sexual knowledge. (2) Those who have the religion considered the permarital purity more important than those who have not, the percentage showing 86.7% and 80.7%, respectively. (3) The result of dyad analysis of making acquaintance of the opposite sex in the friendship network showed that a high index of the acquaintance of the opposite sex tends to be a high adoption of making one at the individual level in the group, while the low index tends to be a low adoption of making one in the group.
Startups lack resources and manpower to build internal capabilities to strengthen market competitiveness; external cooperation such as joint research and networking plays is important. In this study, we analyzed the effect of startups' industry-university cooperation on organizational learning capability and innovation performance. Empirical results demonstrate the mechanism by which government R&D investment strengthens organizational learning capability and creates innovative results by promoting cooperation between startups and universities. First, industry-university cooperation strengthened organizational learning capability. An empirical analysis shows that startups increase internal capabilities through external cooperation. Second, startups' organizational learning capability had a significant effect on innovation performance. We analyze how organizations with high learning capabilities positively develop corporate innovation performance by having a culture of discovery and sharing new ideas. Finally, industry-university cooperation had different effects on organizational learning capability and innovation performance according to the previous experiences of startup founders. In particular, small- and medium-sized (startup) businesses and individual-based experience groups positively affected the creation of organizational learning capabilities and innovation performance through industry-university cooperation. Small- and medium-sized businesses and individual founders have a relatively small cooperative network with the outside world compared to founders of large companies, universities, and research institutes; therefore, they strengthen organizational learning capabilities through cooperation with universities. This study demonstrates that government should create policy inducements for cooperation with universities to maximize the R&D performance of startups. Criticism exists that lending support to startups and universities will hinder innovation performance; nevertheless, government investment plays a role in expanding intangible resources such as accumulating technologies, fostering high-quality human resources, and strengthening innovation networks. Therefore, the government should appropriately utilize the its authority to strengthen investment strategies for startup growth.
Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.