• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.465-482
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• 2016

Previous researches have introduced various ways to analyze the impact of standardization on innovation while the works are not only small in number but based on interview or case study. This paper addresses the impact of standardization activities within South Korean industries on technological innovation applying an empirical analysis of standardization activities and technological innovation. Drawing on Korean Industrial Standards Classification from panel data of 2003 to 2012, we employed corresponding data of each industrial classification: Number of standards, Accumulated number of standards, Number of patents applied in Korea, Sales, Operational profit, Intangible asset, and R&D invest. In the first model, we run panel data models employing the number of patents applied in Korea as an independent variable, and the number of standards, accumulated number of standards, sales, and operational profit as dependent variables to observe industrial impacts upon the relationship between standards and patents, along with time lagged consideration. The result shows that number of standards are revealed to have a negative influence on patent applications in the year of research, and no significant effect appears for the next two years while positive effect shows up on the third year. Meanwhie, accumulated number of standards turned out to have positive effects on patent applications in Korea. This implies it takes time for innovation subjects to embrace newly established standards while having a significant amount of positive effect on technological innovation in the long term. In the second model, we use canonical correlation analysis to find industrial-wide characteristics. The result of this model is equivalent to the result of panel data analysis except in a few industries, where some industry specific characteristics appear. The implications of our results present that Korean policy makers have to take account of industrial effects on standardization to promote technological innovation.