Friday, April 17, 2009

The Trajectory of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Korea

Innovation and entrepreneurship have been central to high-tech growth in advanced countries. Are these drivers of economic and technological development as well in developing countries like Korea?

The competitiveness of a nation stems from innovation. Entrepreneurship should also be a crucial part of an economy since it can create jobs, provide competitive discipline for firms, and build growth momentum. What policies has the Korean government pursued (and does it need to come up with) to foster innovation and entrepreneurship?

Since Korea has achieved economic development via technological progress, one might assume that innovation and entrepreneurship would have been integral part of corporate activities. Slightly different concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship seem to have been developed in Korea which had to build its infrastructure from scratch and adopted the state-led economy.

The trajectory of innovation tends to be path-dependent and incremental in nature. In pursuing innovation, the dynamic nature of innovation should be recognized and carefully managed.

The innovation trajectory in technology followers can be better analyzed in terms of the evolutionary dynamics of the innovation strategy. By understanding the dynamics of the innovation strategy, Korean firms can be better equipped for new opportunities.

In the state-led economy in which the government provided preferential subsidization to a chosen few large firms, coerced exports, strictly controlled financial market and even forced mergers of specific corporations, innovation represents…

Note: The rest of the analysis won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content

No comments:

Post a Comment