• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.215-236
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• 2003

According to Gerschenkron (1962), the industrialization of relative backward countries was characterized in a systematically varying fashion by sudden spurts. With respect to the technological loaming, its globalization, and the subsequent development of technological capability, Korea, a catching-up nation had some experiences of identifiable discontinuities in her technological development in various industries. This study examines a developmental path of technological catching-up in Korean mobile telecommunication, especially CDMA industry and argues that investment and networking capability play an infrastructural role in accumulating her technological capability. Note that the technological experiences in high-tech industries have made Korea take a different technological path with respect to the previous industrialization. For this purpose, it proposes an analytical framework for examining a developmental path of Korean catching-up players. In addition, it analyzes the case of the Korean mobile telecommunication industry on the basis of the framework, and identifies a developmental path from the case analysis.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2001

This study aims at developing some hypotheses on the politics of innovation in catching-up countries. Although innovation studies of catching-up countries have studied the process of acquisition of technological capabilities, the politics of innovation was not seriously considered in those studies. This study suggests a conceptual frame-works of the innovation politics and analyses the innovation process of mobile telecommunication system in Korea. Some hypotheses on the patterns and effects of innovation politics in catching-up countries are put forward.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.776-795
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• 2006

This paper aims at examining technological catching-up in the Korean IT SoC industry using the theories of technological catching-up and sectoral system of innovation. The Korean IT SoC industry has accomplished rapid technological catching-up by the process of variety generation and selection. In the process, Korean fabless ventures have pursued the technological path-creative pattern in niche markets. But the cooperative networks among various firms are prerequisite for the coevolution of sectoral innovation system.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.351-372
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• 2004

This paper examines the change of innovation practices in the Korean industry which is entering into the 'post catching-up regime'. In catching-up regime, the technological loaming practices of Korean firms could be characterized as the assimilation and improvement of foreign technologies through crisis construction and time pressure. Crisis construction and time pressure were the important factors enhancing the intensity of technological teaming and shaping the way of doing imitative innovation. But the innovation patterns of firm are changing. The new ways of doing innovation are emerging in Korean mobile phone industry which is becoming a world leader： the emphasis on the importance of technological planning, the enhancement of collaborative networks among related firms, the toleration on the failure and the effort to acquire core technologies. Though Korean firms have not developed enough capabilities to create basic core technologies, they can develop their competitiveness through creative combination of technologies and are approaching the world frontier.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.92-115
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• 2016

This paper presents how Korea succeeded in developing an indigenous nuclear power plant model over fifty years. Long-lasting national R&D for technical progress and the Korean government for managerial process were the two pillars in the build-up of indigenous Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) technological capabilities. The concept of technological capabilities is used to examine its evolutionary process with a qualitative and longitudinal approach. The government had a developing country ambition to formulate a strategic plan for technical self-reliance on nuclear power plant while establishing the country’s institutions and organization structure for the plan. Under the government leadership, it was national R&D that led to the resolution of a good number of technological problems, efficiently, by absorbing imported technologies and effectively adapting them to local circumstances.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.171-202
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• 2000

This study presents a developmental pattern of technological capability of catching-up players in terms of production, investment, innovation and networking capability. In order to do this, the study develops an analytical framework and examines the experience of the Korean semiconductor industry. Although the presented pattern in the study is not a general pattern for all catching-up players, this pattern implies one of the useful dynamic strategies for catching-up players in developing countries. In addition, this study discusses its contributions and further research areas in the last part of the paper.

• Proceedings of the Korea Technology Innovation Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.227-245
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• 2000

Korean firms have attempted to catch up in the aircraft industry during last quarter century. Korean firms have built up their capabilities by moving from parts manufacturing through subassembly to system integration. The number of projects carried out and the intensity of technological effort undertaken by firms strongly influences market position and firm performance. However, successful catching up is not simply dependent on capability building within the firm. The national environment (Porter, 1990) in which firms are located plays a pivotal role. The Korean government has been effective in creating a favorable environ-ment in many areas, but has not been able to replicate this success in the aircraft industry. Opportunities for learning in the aircraft industry have been hampered by the small size of the Korean civilian aircraft market and the sophisticated requirements of military systems. A policy of domestic rivalry in airframe manufacture has created too many firms for such a small market. The ability of Korean firms to catch up in the aircraft industry depends on both the internal capabilities of firms as well as appropriate government policies and the involve- ment of government research institutions and universities over an extended period of time. There have been many studies about the catching up of developing countries in mass production (such as automobile, consumer electronics, and recently DRAM), but few in complex systems, such as aircraft.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.97-131
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• 2005

This paper has discussed several issues regarding the barriers and opportunities for technological catch-up by the late-comer countries and firms. As one of the barriers to technological catch-up, the paper emphasizes the uncertainty involved with the third stage of learning how to design. The barriers arise because as the forerunner firms refuse to sell or give license to successful catching-up firms who thus have to design the product by themselves. The paper discusses how to overcome this barrier. It also notes that if the crisis of design technology is a push factor for leapfrogging, arrival of new techno-economic paradigm can serve as a pull factor for leapfrogging, serving as a winder of opportunity. The, it emphasized the two risks with leapfrogging, namely the risk of choosing right technology or standards and the risk of creating initial markets, and how to overcome these risks. It discusses how to overcome these risks in leapfrogging, and differentiates diverse forms of knowledge accesses. Then, the paper takes up the issue of whether there can be a single common or several models for catch-up. A common element of catching-up is to enter new markets segments quickly, to manufacture with high levels of engineering excellence, and to be first-to-market by means of the best integrative designs. This observation is supported by the fact that Korea and Taiwan has achieved higher levels of technological capabilities in such sectors as featured by short cycle time of technology. The possibility of two alternative models for catch-up is also discussed in terms of the key difference between Korean and Taiwan, especially in the position toward the source of foreign knowledge and the paths taken toward the final goal of OBM. Taiwan followed the sequential steps of OEM, ODM and OBN, in collaboration or integration with the MNCs. Korean chaebols jumped from OEM directly to OBM even without consolidating design technology.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.36-53
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• 2015

The rise of latecomer countries across the world directs academic attention to their catching-up and innovation processof seizing technological opportunities and combining internal and external knowledge. Different from the developed economies as well as the newly industrialized economies, China presents a special innovation environment, wherein its technology regime, market opportunities, and institutions are complex and the globalization trend affects competition in a broader way. In thiscontext, we clarify and extend the framework of "secondary innovation". This framework describes the dynamics of those with relatively poor resources and capabilities in their efforts to capture the values of mature/emerging technology or business models by acquiringthem from across borders and then adapting to catching-up contexts. Such processes, differentiated from original innovation that involves the whole process from R&D to commercialization, has become a prevailing regime during paradigm shifts. In particular, unlike the traditional catch-up literature that focuses more on technology, the secondary innovation framework inclusively contains both technology and business model innovation, and puts forward the co-evolution between the two elements, which is more applicable to China's context. In accordance, we also provide implications towards fulfilling the goal of building an innovation-driven nation.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.21-46
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• 2004

Focusing on a product, this paper reconstructs the concept of technological systems first introduced by Carlsson and Stankiewicz (1991). Based on the model and our earlier works, we compare the salient features of technological systems for computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools in Korea, Sweden, and the United States.. We also try to measure the performance of the systems in an international comparison. Major findings are as follows: (1) The length of 'learning period' for local (national) technological system is substantial, even though it is a catching-up case. (2) The key success factor of the technological system appears to be the connectivity among various actors or infrastructures, rather than just the existence or formation of those. (3) In three countries' experience, the government played an important role in the formation of each own technological system. (4) The performance of Korea's technological system for CNC machine tools during the past two decades(1981-97) seems to be better than that of Sweden and the U.S. Lastly, many policy implication are presented.