Development of Innovation Studies in Korea from the Perspective of the National Innovation System

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore how extant studies on innovation have contributed to the distribution of knowledge required for improving the national innovation system (NIS) in Korea. Korea was chosen as the context for this study because it is one of the leading countries that has succeeded in establishing an NIS. Using a systematic review method, we selected 739 articles published in two representative innovation journals in Korea, and analyzed the critical topics of these articles from the perspective of NIS studies. Overall, we found that these studies helped establish a knowledge base necessary for developing the NIS in Korea. Results showed that, over time, the scope of the studies shifted attention from building the NIS to implementing it. As a subsystem of the NIS, the industrial fields that sectoral innovation systems (SIS) were interested in were also changing in line with Korea’s economic growth over time. This study contributes to innovation studies by offering a comprehensive picture of findings on NIS studies in the innovation literature in Korea, and providing a theoretical framework that organizes the literature. This study expands our understanding of the NIS, which has been recognized as an effective tool to compare and measure innovative performance and economic achievements.