Longitudinal Trends in Networks of University-Industry-Government Relations in South Korea: The Role of Programmatic Incentives

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the evolution of university-industry-government research networks in South Korea over time, highlighting how national policies influenced collaboration patterns and the overall research system's development.

Contribution

It introduces a longitudinal analysis of the triple-helix indicator in South Korea, revealing policy impacts on research collaboration dynamics over several decades.

Findings

Collaboration increased from 1970s to 1990s

Recent policies reduced inter-institutional cooperation

Korea's research capacity growth was hindered by neglecting network effects

Abstract

This study examines the longitudinal trend of systemness in networked research relations in South Korea using a triple-helix (TH) indicator of university-industry-government (UIG) relations. The data were harvested from the Science Citation Index (SCI) and its counterparts in the social sciences (SSCI) and the arts and humanities (A&HCI). The total number of Korean SCI publications has grown rapidly since 1965. However, the TH indicator shows that the network dynamics have varied considerably according to the research policies of the national government. The collaboration patterns, as measured by co-authorship relations in the SCI noticeably increased, with some variation, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. However, inter-institutional collaboration in the first decade of the 21st century was negatively influenced by the new national science and technology (S&T) research policies that evaluated domestic scientists and research groups based on their international publication numbers rather than on the level of cooperation among academic, private, and public domains. The results reveal that Korea has failed to boost its national research capacity by neglecting the network effects in science, technology, and industry.