National R&D program : a study of the Highly Advanced National (HAN) Program in the Korean Innovation System | |
| Author | Joe, Tai-surp |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-05-01 |
| Subject(s) | Technological innovations--Korea Research--Korea |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Most of industrialized countries prefer selecting strategic industries to render direct support to them, which is geared to build their technological innovation capabilities through collaboration in large-scale national projects between public and private sector. However, industrializing countries, unlike industrialized ones, have not much discussed the rationale of National R&D Programs (NRDP). Defined as a set of distinct institutions which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and provide the framework within which governments form and implement policies to influence the innovation process, the National Innovation System (NIS) is a system of interconnected institutions to create, store and transfer the knowledge, skills and a1iifacts which define new and useful technologies. More than ten years have passed since Korea launched the Highly Advanced National (the HAN) Program as an NRDP in 1992. Given the first attempt of their multi-agency largescale technology development program in Korea, it is necessary to analyze the socioeconomic effect and its contribution to the NIS. This study has analyzed the socioeconomic effects and its contribution to the NIS for 18 programs. The integrated analysis framework forms the basis of this research, and consists to understand achieving the target of the HAN Program as well as its ripple effect, which affects national innovation system through the program implementation. Due to such an extensive integrated analysis framework, any research development program presented in this research will not lead to better perfo1mance in all the analysis indication. Also, it is known that additional ripple effects, which are derived from the program, cannot be the object of the program. Accordingly, making a conclusion relating to the integrated analysis of the national R&D program (NRDP) by listing the entire analysis index carries the risk of obscuring the objective of the program perfo1mance. This study has also analyzed the goal of the HAN project such as (1) whether the original basic technology was secured, (2) whether the strategic products were developed, (3) the level of contribution to the national innovation system. The major causes of technological improvement and program's success were (1) securing material & human resources, (2) capability of research manpower, (3) cooperative research partnership, (4) elimination of market uncertainty via government policy. The establishment of future research infrastructure is classified into human and material resources, network, technology innovation speed, etc., and about half of the participants in the HAN Program were newly hired, which secures the future of R&D for the next generation's science manpower. Secondly, many research facilities for this fundamental science field (as well as others) were secured due to the HAN Program. Such research centers and bases hugely contributed to the establishment of the research infrastructure. Since the birth of the HAN Program, many departments have increased investment funds for R&D. And with regard to research networks, the HAN Program was a strong motive in forming cooperative research networks, which had been very poorly constituted prior to the program. In particular, domestic research network centers exchange of information rather that of manpower. On the other hand, network establishment for international cooperative research is strongly pursued by research institutes. Fourth, in view of technology innovation speed, analysis can be made by TCT (technology life cycle) of patents. As the HAN Program researchers adopt new technology faster, they improve their ability to meet future technological demand. The development of strategic manufactured goods may be viewed in economic terms-such as the technology's commercialization level, corporate sales, exports, import substitution, and cost-benefit ratio. On average 61 % of all corporate participants in the HAN Program have completed prototype production and is at the manufacturing & selling point. As 19% of participants are already at the point of selling their final product, commercialization was realized pretty quickly. Regarding economic effect, total sales for the years 1998-2002 of products developed through the HAN Program amount to around US$ 103 billion. This constitutes 4% of the total sales amount in Korea's manufacturing industry over the same period of time. This is a very large amount given that the R&D expenditure of the HAN Program is at 3.7% of the country's total R&D cost. This verifies the huge commercial success of companies that participated in the high-risk the HAN Program. Furthermore, as the cost-benefit ratio is estimated to reach 8-fold in five years and 21-fold in 10 years, the ripple effect of the HAN Program is likely to greatly influence participating companies. In conclusion, the HAN Program with its academic capability and advanced level of knowledge led the way by improving domestic technology power and establishing future research infrastructure. The program greatly reinforced the national system of innovation by contributing to the establishment of human and material resource network. The HAN program greatly contributed to the increase of the GDP and industrial productivity. It also contributed to creation of new jobs. It is expected that the analytical framework and methodology of this research can be used for planning, implementation, management, survey, evaluation and analysis of future national R&D programs. The results of this study, including the "best practices" can be used as a learning process and back up document by policy makers. In addition to this, it can be used by government budget allocating officers and taxpayers to understand the ultimate outcomes of large-scale national R&D programs such as the HAN and the validity of future public R&D programs. Based on the study, one systematic management model for the NRDP suggested in the NIS context. It is noted that Korea imminently needs to reconsolidate the National Innovation System of science and technology, and also universities and research institutions need to secure their creative advantage in competition to serve as a leader in the global economy in the years to come. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management (SOM) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Johri Lalit M.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Bechter, Clemens;Paul, H.;Tabucanon, Mario T.;Gupta, Sushil; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of R.O.K.; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |