Economic crisis and the construction of a neo-liberal regulatory regime in Korea

A consistent theme of the literature on the ontology of the 1997 South Korean crisis is the key role played by regulatory failures and the growing weakness of the state. This paper seeks to briefly highlight both the insights and the limitations of this approach to understanding the crisis. Having done so, we shall set out the argument that the crisis created an opportunity for reformist Korean élites to advance their longstanding, but previously frustrated, project to create a comprehensive unambiguously neo-liberal regulatory regime. This paper will also seek to highlight the implications of our reading of the development of the Korean political economy for broader debates on economic liberalisation, crisis and the future of the developmental state

Technological relatedness, related variety and economic geography

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Global Value Chains in Shipbuilding: Governance and Knowledge Exchange

Part 1: Knowledge Discovery and SharingInternational audienceOver the last decades, the Norwegian shipbuilding industry has become increasingly globalized, with offshoring of production of to low cost locations. Globally dispersed production of complex and customized ships has proven to be challenging with respect to coordination of activities and exchange of knowledge. The paper investigates how different governance alternatives affect knowledge exchange in the global value chains of two shipbuilding groups. The findings indicate that vertical integration facilitates coordination and knowledge transfer to foreign shipyards. However, reverse knowledge transfer through these linkages seems to be limited. This may have implications for the future innovativeness of this industry

Characterization of Innovation Situation in a Remote Rural Region

Innovation debates dealing with regional economic development have generally focused on densely populated, technologically advanced areas and areas around university cities, undervaluing rural regions and their integration in national innovation systems. However, some statistics indicate that remote and rural regions may also have good innovation potential. This study examines more closely the innovation situation of the firms located in a remote rural region in Finland. The study is based on a structured survey including four main questions describing the innovation situation in the firms. The study outlines the most important features regarding the innovation, correlations between the main results and differences between the firm size categories and sectors. In general, the results indicate, e.g., high importance of a firm's own innovation activities, and reveal some marketing goals of innovation and financial barriers. A correlation analysis reveals several significant correlations between the main results of the survey

Contextualising Regional Innovation Systems in a Globalising Learning Economy: On Knowledge Bases and Institutional Frameworks

In order to advance the understanding of which types of regional innovation system represent effective innovation support for what kinds of industry in different regions analyses must be contextualized by reference to the actual knowledge base of various industries as well as to the regional and national institutional framework, which strongly shape the innovation processes of firms. Of special importance is the linkage between the larger institutional frameworks of the national innovation and business systems, and the character of regional innovation systems. In making the arguments about a general correspondence between the macro-institutional characteristics of the economy and the dominant form and character of its regional innovation systems a link is provided to the literature on ‘varieties of capitalism’ and national business systems. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006Regional innovation systems, knowledge bases, institutional frameworks, O18, O31,