Latecomers’ science-based catch-up in transition: the case of the Korean pharmaceutical industry

This thesis investigates the 25-year transitional process of the Korean pharmaceutical industry from its initial focus on the imitative production of generic drugs to the development of new drugs. The catch-up dynamics of latecomer countries in science-intensive industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, is an overlooked research topic in existing literature on innovation studies. This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of Korea’s science-intensive catch-up and applies an ‘exploration and exploitation’ framework to a latecomer setting and in a novel institutional and market context of the transitional phase. This thesis argues that the rate of change in the transition from imitating drugs to developing new drugs depends on the institutional and organisational mechanisms that enable a new form of technological learning, termed ‘exploratory learning’. This form of learning is often unfamiliar to firms in latecomer countries, whereas it is necessary for producing innovative drugs. That is, latecomers’ institutional and organisational promotion of exploratory learning is related to a ‘pattern change’ in the previously established institutional and organisational routines associated with imitative learning. The findings show that the rate of industrial transition in this sector was constrained by the problematic operation of S&T policies promoting key characteristics of exploratory learning, such as high-risk long-term learning as well as dense interactions between a diverse number of innovation actors. The findings also illuminate some latecomer firms’ initial difficulties in managing the new mode of technological learning, and in strategically applying that mode of learning to overcome the barriers to moving through the transitional phase towards producing competitive innovation. The thesis also suggests that the nature of drugs as integral products, deeply grounded in science, makes it difficult to effectively promote institutional and organisational transformations in favour of exploratory learning

politics, policy, and innovation in the Korean aircraft manufacturing sector

Thesis(Doctoral) --KDI School:Ph.D in Public Policy,2018The study intends to review the prospects of bolstering sectoral capacities in East Asian developmental states over the course of building institutional infrastructure in highly complex technological products with a focus on aircraft manufacturing. In the case of the late industrialization process of East Asian catch-up economies, theory revealed the astonishing economic performances that arouse from established institutional arrangements, which were engendered unique towards the country’s idiosyncratic political attributions. Leaving behind the glorious economic achievements of late industrialization, however, East Asian developmental states have been struggling in its attempts of enhancing sectoral competitive capacities into intensely science based areas of highly advanced technological fields. Industrial upgrading has been the talk of the town the past few decades in Korea, as the fast following sectors in technology catch-up started to foresee the stalling growth patterns emerging across its economic sphere. In order to grasp the growing economic potentials of high tech advanced products such as in aircraft-manufacturing, the national innovation systems of Korea attempted to accommodate emerging developmental challenges through established institutional arrangements in R&D, production, and industrial competition structures, which once proven its effectiveness during the earlier days of rapid industrialization. Over the process of industrially upgrading into these knowledge-based capital intensive sectors, the domestic institutional arrangements, in association with external international conditions, which facilitated achievements in fast economic catch-up, have turned cumbersome in terms of transitioning the country’s innovation system adaptive enough to accommodate the more complex technological challenges. Vertical stovepipes streamlined towards state driven economic development policies have somewhat become obsolete as the institutional construct, shaped attune to the processes of late industrialization, has exhibited incompetence over regulating spontaneously grown sectoral firm based capacities and competitiveness in advanced technological manufacturing fields. Thus, the inherent developmental complexities unfolding in a highly technological Schumpeterian Mark II sector increasingly present convoluted challenges against established institutions of the national innovation systems. The situation materialized ostensibly evident in the Chaebol dominated industrial composition of the Korean aircraft-manufacturing sector where government competition policies did not perform well enough to fulfill the developmental aspirations of aircraft manufacturing. The proposed framework of analysis for this study attempts to accommodate relevant contemporary theories made known from a bundle of innovation studies, which include the theories of national innovation systems, varieties of capitalism, developmental state, and complex product systems. The theory illuminates the sectoral innovation systems demonstrated from the technological regimes of the Schumpeterian Mark II sectors, of which translates into the situation of the Korean aircraft-manufacturing sector. In this regard, the proposed analytical framework developed from these point of views highlights the role of coordinative mechanisms that interconnects national-regional-sectoral levels of innovation over a chosen high technology sector. The absorptive capacities of key actors and diffusion mechanisms of established institutions constitute the major analytical point of this coordinative mechanism. The main argument of the study asserts the need to effectively build cross sectoral coordinative mechanisms throughout the national, regional, and sectoral level of analysis, while exerting concerted efforts to overcome the multiple layers of hurdles against late entrants into technologically complex business areas. Consequently, regarding an attainable solution for Korea successful accession into highly technological sectors, the paper necessitates the transitional efforts of transforming a rigid state-led innovation system into a spontaneously integrated coordinative institutional structure, which accommodates a broad spectrum of absorptive capacities and diffusion mechanisms tailored for developing complex product systems.Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Theory and Analytical Framework Chapter 3: The Global Aerospace and Defense Industry Chapter 4: State Capitalism and the National Innovation Systems of Korea Chapter 5: The Aircraft Manufacturing Sector: Background and National Level Innovation Systems Chapter 6: The Aircraft Manufacturing Sector: Regional and Sectoral Level Innovation Systems Chapter 7: Case Studies: The T-50 Supersonic Advanced Trainer Program Chapter 8: Case Studies –The Korea Helicopter Program, KUH-Surion Chapter 9. ConclusiondoctoralpublishedJung Hyuk CHOI

Universities' academic research and knowledge-transfer activities in a catch-up country: the case of Korea

The main research topic of this study is universities’ academic research and knowledge-transfer activities in a catch-up country, particularly the relationship between the two activities, which has been rarely examined in previous research. In order to understand this issue against existing literature, a critical review of previous studies has been attempted, considering the idiosyncratic characteristics of the Korean national innovation system. As a result, at the three analysis levels (i.e. national, organisational and individual levels), we propose three conceptual elements respectively: a tentative historical path of universities in catch-up countries; critical factors influencing knowledge transfer activities of universities in catch-up countries; and academics operating in synergy mode. Thereafter, based on the methodology integrating not only the three analysis levels but also qualitative and quantitative approaches, we analyse the data collected from the interviews with Korean academics, survey responses from Korean academics and government White Papers on the activities of Korean universities. The results show a close and positive relationship between Korean universities’ academic research and knowledge-transfer activities across the three levels. Firstly, during the last several decades, the Korean government has strongly encouraged the development of teaching, academic research and knowledge-transfer activities of Korean universities in harmony with the different developmental stages of Korean industry. This has resulted in selective patterns of the universities’ three activities (e.g. concentration of scientific activities in certain fields). Secondly, organisational factors such as scientific capacity and industry funding are important for universities’ knowledge-transfer activities in a catch-up country, which corroborates the positive relationship between the two activities. Finally, in terms of the factors influencing the synergy mode (i.e. a positive relationship between academic research and knowledge-transfer activities), academics’ career stage and disciplines are important. This is related to the rapid expansion of the Korean academic system and the selectivity found in its activities. Based on these findings, it is tempting to conclude that universities in East Asian catch-up countries have developed their own academic system different from those in developed countries, which can be characterised as having strong government control and a high level of interaction with other actors in the national innovation system. Therefore, the application of the controversy over the direct economic contribution of universities in western countries to the context of catch-up countries is quite limited

Changing innovation systems in the developing country context: technology transfer and the new technological capabilities in the materials industry in Turkey

This thesis is concerned with analysing the extent that technology transfer contributes to the improvement and development of technological capabilities through learning at the firm level in a developing country context, and the impact of this process on the emergence and changes of key characteristics of innovation systems. Therefore, it investigates how innovation systems change over time and how they were influenced by technology transfer activities in the materials industry in Turkey between 1967 and 2001. As a contribution to the theory, the concept of technological capability is used as a bridge from the notion of technology transfer to that of the innovation system. Innovation system studies tend to rely on R&D statistics via innovation surveys for empirical analyses, whereas these could well be defined by qualitative data collected on technological capabilities through interviews. This thesis follows the latter route within an analytical framework that is designed for a firm-centred analysis. The qualitative data obtained from the interviews were transformed into categorical quantitative data to be used in multinomial logistic regression and linear regression analyses. This thesis shows firstly that firm-level capabilities were increasing over time during the period from 1967 to 2001 in the materials industry in Turkey. They were also increasing over time with the rising level of technological capabilities in the firms and the firms’ involvement in both collaborative relationships and in-house activities. Secondly, firmlevel capabilities shape the way the interactions in the innovation system change. As their level of technological capabilities deepen, firm interactions increase and shift to a moderate degree in plausible directions towards domestic agents, which are predominantly universities and research institutes. These findings support the firmdriven nature of the innovation systems