It is commonly agreed that the Korean economy has been able to achieve rapid growth in such a short period of time because it has appropriately accumulated and developed technology learning skills suitable for securing and developing the knowledge and skills required in the process of technological development and industrial development. Currently, the innovation system of Korea has advanced industrial technology and secured product competitiveness great enough to compete with advanced countries. Now, it is time for Korea to pioneer its own route for technological development.
Based on the paradigm shift from the catch-up economy, which was the basis of the past innovation system, to a leading economy, now it is time to secure technology and creative learning to move up to complex technologies. However, the Korean economy, which has entered into a transition stage, is now stuck in the conventional routine that was effective in technology learning during the catch-up economy stage. As such, it is having difficulties during the transition period.
This research aims to present an in-depth discussion on the policy efforts needed for the transition of learning capabilities, and the improvement of the overall technology learning process within the innovation system in the current Korean economy, in which a shift in paradigm for innovation growth through the transformation of the innovation system is now needed more than ever. From the perspective of building technology learning skills, the research aims to identify the characteristics of the major institutional sectors within the innovation system of Korea, to understand how much the innovation system depends on each sector.
In addition, the research aims to derive policy issues of the major institutional sectors that serve as obstacles in building technology learning skills and successfully transforming to a new innovative system. Furthermore, by discussing the policy innovation tasks to solve the problems derived from the research, it will be possible to provide implications for the innovation strategies of the Korean economy to achieve the desired quality of growth. This research identifies the growth process of the Korean economy as a result of building technology learning skills within the innovation system and the interaction of various institutional sectors that support the skills. In addition, the research considers the main sectors that form technology learning capabilities within the national innovation system to be those that create new technology and knowledge (the science and technology sector), those that determine the pattern of technological development and cultivate human resources that create technological innovation and complementarities (the education and human resource sectors), and the industrial policy sector that supports the interaction between the technological innovation sector and the human resource sector (the policy and finance sector).
Based on the findings, at a time when it is necessary to secure technology learning and creative learning capabilities to advance to new and complex technologies, the research investigates policy innovation tasks that aim to build an environment that promotes “creative learning” and maximizes the “ripple effect of learning.”
The main analysis of the research emphasizes the fact that the transition to technology learning can appear from interactions among the various institutional factors within the innovation system. In addition, the research suggests that institutions and government policies should increase the growth potential and cause a shift in the paradigm in order to be co-evolved with the country’s technological level and technology learning paradigm.
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