Innovation and Networks in Industrial Clusters: Empirical Results from Three Large Cities - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 255

can be created interactively, which is supported by policy decision-making agencies,
technology transfer organizations, consulting service providers, brokers, etc.
Regional metropolitan cities of the country such as Busan, Gwangju, and
Daejeon lack R&D activities of the enterprises and entrepreneurship since they
developed through the mass production and export-oriented industrialization at the
early stages of industrialization. Besides, since the proportion of branch plants is
high in these cities, they are not regarded as highly innovative as in the innovative
clusters in advanced countries. Despite that, they are trying to get over the regional
crisis that is unfavorable to innovation, and strengthen innovation through the new
types of strategic industries of the region.
The purpose of this chapter is to examine innovation activities and innovative
networks in the strategic industries of three metropolitan cities of Korea, and to
draw policy implications for reinforcing clustering and networking. To this end,
the chapter provides the results of a survey of 180 businesses in Busan, Gwangju,
and Daejeon. The structure of this chapter is as follows: The next section gives the
concept of innovation and cluster in brief. The third section briefly explains the
background of these regions and the methodology adopted for the study, and
analyzes the survey results. The last section summarizes the key findings of the
study and suggests policy implications for the future development of the strategic
industries of the three metropolitan cities.
2 Innovation and Clusters
Innovation can be defined in various ways. Schumpeter provides five definitions of
innovation as follows: (1) introduction of new products or qualitative change in
existing products, (2) process innovation new to the industry, (3) opening of a new
market, (4) development of new sources of supply for raw materials or other
inputs, and (5) change in industrial organization.
Since the days of Schumpeter, innovation has move to the heart of economic
policy-making. The European Commissions Directorate XIII, which is responsible
for science and technology of Europe, defines innovation as follows: The com-
mercially successful exploration of new technologies, ideas, or methods through
the introduction of new products or processes, or through the improvement of
existing ones.
Oslo Manual of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD 1992 , 1997 ) provides a precise definition of technological product and
process innovation which is useful for a standardized survey (Holbrook et al.
2000 ). The OECD definition of innovation classifies the concept of 'new' into
three levels: new to the world, new to a nation, and new to the enterprise.
Many theoretical approaches have been suggested to explain the sources,
characteristics and determinants of innovation. For example, behavioral theorists
have highlighted the important influence and effect of uncertainty on decision-
making of a firm. Structural theorists suggest that the structure of an entire