Introduction –
A nation’s innovation system is shaped by how the nation leverages its endowments—natural resources, culture, history, geography, and demographics—through policies that create a thriving market-oriented economy and accelerate the transition of new technologies, processes, and services to the market (Branscomb and Auerswald 2002). The aim of this assignment is to evaluate South Korea’s innovation policies, in light of its latest ranking as the second most innovative country in the world.
This country is of particular interest as it is one of the four Asian Tiger economies, whose rapid industrialisation and growth between the early 1960’s and 1990’s caused it to emerge as one of the most dynamic and fast-changing countries in Asia and the world. Much like Japan, its economic development was marked by heavy investments in foreign technology and imitation through reverse-engineering. By limiting FDI, South Korea maintained control over its industrial base and encouraged investments in R&D.
South Korea’s scarcity of natural resources has motivated it to look at its human capital as its biggest endowment, leading it to invest heavily in education, science and technology to create a knowledge-based economy. In doing so, it has achieved a literacy rate close to 98%, with 65% of the population under 35 having completed a university education, the highest among OECD countries.
Both government and industry play an important role in the country’s innovation system, and whilst state-led research and education have provided a robust capacity for innovation, South Korea’s economy is dominated by business conglomerates called Chaebol (E.g. Samsung, Hyundai, LG electronics, and Pohang Iron and Steel Company amongst others) throu...
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...ernment has set policies to strengthen inter-departmental cooperation so as to better manage its innovation policies.
Another factor is that Korea’s heavy investment in human capital has led its education to rely heavily on rote learning and curricula cramming for the national university entrance exam. This leaves little room for creative thinking and an exploratory spirit . The government’s remedies include investments (over the past decade) to improve the education system, as well as work with industry to create more specialized curricula to smoothen the transition from university to industry.
Adaptive strategies are needed to overcome such challenges . . . .
Strengths and weaknesses of South Korea’s Innovation system –
Korea has combined policy-driven S&T investments with market-driven business strategies to become one of the most innovative economies today
Kelley,T. (2005, Oct.). The 10 faces of innovation. Fast Company, 74-77. Retrieved 6th March’ 2014 from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=9&sid=1d6a17b7-c5f7-4f00-bea4 db1d84cbef55%40sessionmgr10&hid=28&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=18386009
This response will focus on the key issue of fragmentation. In his book Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, Michael E. Robinson wrote “Multiple interest groups resided within the bureaucracy and even divided the royal house” (p. 16). Arguably, Korea’s sovereignty was lost in large part, due to the lack of unity among different groups and faction. It was clear from the readings that some Korean individuals and groups prioritized their self-interests above their own country’s benefit. Nowhere was this most evident then the issue of national security.
The last but not least element of the Samsung’s “cost puzzle” (which, unfortunately cannot be supported by concrete numbers from the case study, and is rather based on intuition) was the way the firm built and maintained intellectual capital and stimulated innovativeness and creativity among employees. It had established an incentive-based remuneration system, it sponsored employees for PhDs and MBA education, it created a family-friendly working environment in which more of employees’ energy could be devoted to solving problems at work instead of troubles in private lives. In most modern industries, such a long-term approach and investing in human capital eventually pays off resulting in higher productivity and better and cheaper products.
In Se-Woong Koo’s article “An Assault Upon Our Children,” Koo’s asserts that with South Korea's infamous education system, it is taking a toll on students' mental state. He supports this claim by first commenting “Among youth South Koreans who confessed to feeling suicidal in 2010, an alarming 53 percent identified inadequate academic performance as the main reason for such thoughts”(Koo). In The Smartest Kids in the World, Amanda Ripley reports “The system had become overly competitive leading to an unhealthy preoccupation with test scores and a dependence on private tutoring academies”(Ripley 60). Because of the competitive education, students do not have enough time to find themselves and have more resentment to other students who are getting
This book is pieced together in two different efforts, one which is to understand the latter history of the post-1945 era with its political liberalization and rapid industrialization period, while at the same time centering its entire text on the question of Korean nationalism and the struggle against the countless foreign invasions Korea had to face. The purpose of this book was composed to provide detailed treatment of how modern Korea has developed with the converged efforts of top eastern and western scholars who wanted to construct a fair overview of Korea's complicated history. Also, the writers wanted to create an updated version of Korea's history by covering the contemporary arena up to the 1990's. The ...
His “Three Worlds of Innovation” system categorizes countries into one of three differentiations of entrepreneurial abilities. The category of marginalized countries includes areas of low innovative contributions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The second tier categorizes technological diffusers, which have advanced production and technology absorption abilities but low contribution to innovation, including China, India, and the former Soviet Union. At the top of the hierarchy is the core country category, which includes “Western” states like the United States, Japan, and nations in Western Europe which dominate innovation due to their wealth, supportive abilities, and developed infrastructure. Sachs describes the hostility of marginalized countries to innovation, blaming the absence of national innovation systems/democratic policy and poor STEM support, as well as natural disadvantages such as ecological and environmental challenges. To become a diffuser and/or a core country, he recommends marginalized countries aim to develop their urban areas into sites of globalized production, attracting financial grants and international support for scientific advancements. By integrating a national economy into world production, states such as Singapore and Israel have become bases of operation for world-class technology leaders. Conclusively, Sachs contends that while many aspects of innovation (such as intellectual property rights and technology transfer) must be reimagined themselves, the public provision and promotion of STEM is critical to innovation and must be supported
Davila, T., Epstein, M.J., & Shelton, R.D. (2013). Making innovation work: How to manage it, measure it and profit from it. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publisher.
...&D capability was not supported by their ability to efficiently produce and market the innovation. Since the R&D is separated from production and sales, it was not market-oriented enough. The limitation of sharing local market knowledge also leads Philips to its inability sell the excellent innovation that R&D has developed. Seeing this as opportunity, Japanese companies able to combine Philips invention with their mass-market production ability and successfully became the leader in the market.
South Korea is a country that has rapidly developed. But the country also experienced military dictatorship in the 1980s
State-led development in Korea let the government mandate which firms would enter certain markets and financial incentives such as tax breaks and low-interest loans attracted businesses and pushed others out of the markets. Although many of the first firms had close ties to the corrupt Syngman Rhee, the second government of Korea quickly realized that it would need the help of these entrepreneurs to modernize the economy. In its effort to quicken the pace of economic modernization, South Korea created an oligopolistic and monopolistic market in which only a handful of conglomerates operated. These conglomerates eventually came to be known as chaebols which roughly translates to “business family,” “monopoly,” or “money
South Korea, once a broken country filled with broken families, has transformed itself into a fine example of perseverance in a tough situation. South Korea and its neighbor to the north have developed past where they were before the Korean War, but in different ways. The two countries, while certainly dependent on each other, are vastly different. Their conflicting styles of government and their differing cultures speak for themselves in this case. South Korea has, over the years, changed dramatically from the crippled country of the Korean War into a blossoming beacon of Asian cultural and economic changes. The combination of its recent economic importance, its heavy cultural influence, and its constant danger of participating in a war makes South Korea one of the most influential countries in the world.
Science and technology became a necessity for the improvement of Korea and its people, Lee explains “Self-improvement in the fields of science and technology emerged as a key goal because of the growing consensus among Koreans that they had to learn science and technology in or to survive. ” (Lee, 785) The need for survival meant that there was an emphasis on technological and scientific achievements, which was suppressed by Japanese and their overarching control over Korea. The Japanese colonization of Japan resulted in a nationalistic movement, in which media were celebrating the achievements of inventors regardless of their professional
In October 2009, Wonder Girls, a South Korean girl group, became the first Korean singers to enter the Top 100 of the Billboard’s Chart with their hit song “Nobody” and ranked 76th place. This is a big deal for them since the Billboard Hot 100 is one of the two leading music charts is the United States of America. And recently, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became the most “liked” and viewed YouTube video of all time currently garnering almost 2 billion views. He also became the first artist from East Asia to top the United Kingdom Charts. This video became so viral that you could search for more than a million dance and song covers from different countries all over the world. These Korean songs became worldwide hit songs because of social media. Korean music industries are focusing on using social media as a medium to reach the global fame that it is enjoying today.
North Korea has a history of human rights violations all the way up to the present day. With these violations include horrifying concentration camps and famine all over the North Korean soil caused by the government that runs North Korea. “There are 200,000 people who want to escape North Korean borders and flee from it” (Feffer, John Pg. 4, 1). It is said that North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world. The topic of United States invading North Korea to end human rights violations has a deep history to consider, and there will always be both supporters and critics who continue to debate this topic.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or Laos, is a politically stable and peaceful landlocked country in Southeast Asia, centrally located in the Mekong sub-region. The country occupies about 236,800 square kilometers and almost half the length of the Mekong River that flows through it. It is bordered by China to the north, Myanmar and Thailand to the west, Cambodia to the south and Vietnam to the east. The country has a tropical monsoon climate with a rainy season from May to October. Temperatures range from highs of 40°C along the Mekong River in March and April to lows of 5°C in the high mountains in January. (The World Fact Book) Most of Laos is covered by mountains and dense forests and its population density is among the lowest in Asia. Laos has a population of about 5.6 million, comprising 47 ethnic groups.