• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.151-175
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• 2015

The focus of regional innovation policies is shifting from a central government to local governments. No one denies the fact that the innovation will lead regional development and shall be created in such a way that it will be appropriate for regional circumstances. However, the central government and local governments have not arrived yet at a conclusion on what innovation policies are appropriate for regional circumstances. This leads to a consequence that is inefficient not only at a national level, but also at a regional level. This research, given this problem, aims to find out the characteristics and differences in innovation types among the regions in Korea and suggests appropriate policy implications by classifying such characteristics and differences. This research, given these objectives, classified regions in consideration of the various indicators that comprise the innovation suggested by existing related researches and illustrated policies based on such characteristics and differences. In this research clustering analysis based on multiple factor analysis was applied. Supplementary researches on dynamically analyzing stability in regional innovation types, establishing systematic indicators based on the regional innovation theory, and developing additional indicators are necessary in the future.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.377-393
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• 2007

National balanced development and regional innovation have been one of the most important national agendas under the Participatory Government. National balanced development gives a central focus on realizing self-sustaining localization which is based on regional innovation. The core policy goal is to build competitive regional innovation system and innovative clusters in the regions of the country. In this vein, this paper aims to evaluate the present government's policies of regional innovation and innovative cluster. It needs to point out that the regional innovation and cluster policies show some critical problems. Firstly, the policy-making process is based on the top-down approach rather than the bottom-up one. Secondly, regional innovation policies, in many cases, expose the redundancy of similar policies and a lack of linkages between similar policies. Thirdly, the regional innovation policies are too much social infrastructure building-centered, even though the basic principle of regional innovation policy should be based on building superstructure such as networking and social capital.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.167-181
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• 2006

This paper reviews regional innovation policy in Japan. 'Technopolis' policy, the first technology-based regional development policy in the world, was implemented in Japan. Nonetheless, technology-based regional endogenous development did not occur. Then, regional technology transfer was pursued. In order to make use of universities and public research institutes in a region for development, university-industry collaboration and cross-over, such as university spin-offs, were promoted. Within this background, new technology-based regional development policies have been introduced based on a cluster approach. These policies are the knowledge cluster Initiative and the industrial cluster program. However, existing companies have difficulty in carrying out innovation. This paper argues that a cluster to create new start-ups that carry out innovation is also needed and explains a new concept of venturing cluster. Based on this new cluster concept, this paper analyzes the situation of Sapporo in Japan, where many university spin-offs are being created in the biotechnology field.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.235-250
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• 2007

The Korean Government has recently been pushing ahead with a variety of programs to support regional innovation. This paper examines whether the variety of regional innovation programs of the government are efficiently managed and effectively functioning in regions. To make the assessment, questionnaire surveys were executed targeting innovation actors in fourteen regions and evaluated the efficiency of government regional programs. Key points of assessment were the appropriateness of the program organization and the efficiency of program management for the effectiveness of program results. It was found that the appropriateness of the program organization and the efficiency of program management were related positively to performance of programs, but the performance of regional innovation programs overall was not high. Some problems were found in program organization and program management such as the overlapping of program objectives and functions, the inadequate synergy among programs, insufficient reflection of the needs of industry in planning, the overlapping investment in facilities and equipment, and low effectiveness of evaluation.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.505-534
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore the key elements of the regional innovative milieu by analyzing the role of regional innovative elements and case organizations that promoted the emergence of 'Songakdongnesaramdeul (the people of the Songak town),' and to present pertinent policy implications. For the purpose, this study set the "Songakdongnesaramdeul," a residential community organization founded for regional innovation to revitalize the village community, as a case organization from the perspective of regional innovation system theory. The result of the study showed that creating an innovative milieu through the creation of various innovation elements to revitalize the village community is crucial. Especially, this study confirmed that the existence of regional development organizations is the key element of the innovative milieu. such as case organization that contributes to regional development while promoting interaction between actors, common learning and systemization, and new value creation activities. The implications derived through the study can be summarized in four points. First, a variety of means to promote the formation of subjects in response to the public debate of the village agenda is needed. Second, it is highly important to create innovative elements, for example, organizations and programs, resources, and spaces that promote regional innovation. Third, forming a close network between various innovative resources existing in the region and establishing regional capabilities that allow to mobilize and utilize such innovative resources are important. Fourth, the establishment of a promotion mechanism such as a case organization is suggested as a major task, to revitalize the village community. Specifically, forming and revitalizing numerous private-based community organizations with regional developmental capabilities to establish local governance also has significant importance. In this vein, based on the point of view of the regional innovation system theory, the establishment of regional policies to construct a regional innovation milieu, such as creating innovative elements that can actively promote the regeneration of the village community and establishing a promotion system, can be presented as major tasks.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.265-289
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• 2009

This research analyzed regional innovation capabilities and technological activities of firms in Chungnam province of South Korea on the basis of a questionnaire survey of 64 regional manufacturing firms. The existence and level of regional innovation capabilities were measured by the perceptions of firms, a core actor in the regional innovation system. The analysis result revealed that research capabilities of academia, capabilities of R&D institutes, technological capabilities of industry, and governmental policy support were recognized as major capabilities of the regional innovation system. Regional proximity was also found to have significant influence on firms‘ sources of technological innovation and selection of collaboration partners. Practical as well as theoretical implications of the findings and future research directions were discussed at the last part.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.955-985
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• 2005

This paper describes the evolutionary trajectory of the missions of public research institutes(PRIs) in Korea since 1960s and analyses the newly highlighted role of PRIs as the facilitators of regional innovation system, with questionnaire surveys and the case study of Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology(GIST). PRIs have played important roles in Korean rapid economic development by introducing and improving foreign high-technologies in 1970s and 1980s and by creating new advanced high-technologies in 1990s. In recent years, the functions as regional technology innovators have been considered important as regional innovation system has come to the center of discussion. According to the result of this study, Korean PRIs have recognized their roles relevant to regional innovation, such as developing the technologies of regional strategic industries and awakening regional innovative actors to a sense of research. Regardless of the functions as industrial technology suppliers, however, the bilateral networks between PRIs and regional industries are not revealed strong, whereas those with universities and other research institutes are relatively strong. In addition, the research cooperation of PRIs with regional innovative actors are different by where they are located. The case of GIST shows how a regional PRI operates, commercializes its academic achievement and encourages the regional transfer of the achievement systematically. Finally, this study draws some policy implications on developing regional PRIs.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.195-214
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• 2008

In 2004, in order to create core competences and major growth drivers for endogenous regional developments, the Korean government adopted the policies for establishing regional innovation systems, The main organization for the policies is the regional innovation council which is composed of diverse groups of scholars, professionals, and government officials. The regional innovation council of Kang-won Province consists of a couple of sub-divisions such as Operation Committee, Administration Office, Planning and Moderation Department, Strategic Industry Department, Culture and Tourism Industry Department, Regional Industry Department, and Regional Human Resource Development Department. The primary roles and jobs are planning, reviewing, evaluating and finalizing regional innovation policies. However, because of conflicts with local government, insufficient budget problems, organization structure problems, and decision making process problems, the regional innovation councils could not perform their original roles and functions. They could not adopt radical or non-traditional strategies. Although it's failure, a lot of people recognize the importance of regional innovation councils' roles and functions, I believe there would be another regional innovation councils coming continuously which would be take more important roles and have more power over budgeting problems. The purpose of this article is to identify the primary sources of strategies and organization structure problems of the previous regional innovation councils and to provide a couple of answers. In this paper, the author primarily analyze the problems of the Kang-won innovation council. A couple of answers to the desirable organization structures and the desirable roles of regional innovation councils will be presented for discussion.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1-28
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• 2022

Arguably many studies point out that regional innovation capabilities are accepted as a major source of growth for the sustainable regional economy. Recently, a smart specialisation strategy that should reflect regional characteristics in the policy implementation process of the regional innovation system has been proposed, but empirical studies have only presented limited results. This study attempts to overcome limitations by approaching smart specialisation as a supplementary strategy for existing regional innovation research. To this end, smart specialisation was not an alternative strategy for the regional innovation system, but rather the institutional elements of regional innovation capabilities, and the relationship between regional innovation capabilities and the local economy was analyzed to identify the impact of smart specialisation on the local economy. A study was conducted through a panel model consisting of 16 cities and provinces in Korea and 10 years from 2009-2018, and the FGLS model was finally used through the process of searching for an appropriate panel model. As a result of the study, smart specialisation consisting of industry related variety and non-related variety had a positive effect on the local economy. In addition, other regional innovation capabilities measured by dividing them into base and facilitating factors also had a positive effect on the local economy, reaffirming the results of positive research between existing regional innovation and the local economy. This study is meaningful in that smart specialisation lacking in domestic research was viewed as an institutional element of regional innovation capabilities, and it was measured through regional industry-related variety and non-related variety.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.17-40
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• 2008

The collaboration among academia, industry, and public research sector gains importance in these days. This is essential for implement competent regional and national innovation systems. There have been many governmental programs for activating collaboration among innovation actors. Most policy programs for collaboration have aimed at increasing S&T and innovation potential and constructing S&T infrastructure. However, Korea has not produced a sufficient level of collaboration, especially on regional level. Most policy programs could not reach regions and many regions have no enough innovation actors. In order to activate R&D collaboration, therefore, we suggest that Korean S&T community should build and implement "collaborative research centers" all over the regions. This concept is very new approach, especially because it focuses on collaboration among regional innovation actors. In this paper, we discuss a concept, type, and execution strategy of collaboration research centers. We expect that these centers will play an important role in implementing successful regional innovation systems, as they will link regional innovation actors very closely.