Factors of Collaboration Affecting the Performance of Alternative Energy Patents in South Korea from 2010 to 2017

Abstract

In recent years, innovation of alternative energy technologies to manage climate change has become an important goal worldwide. South Korea has been focusing on the innovation of alternative energy technologies through its investments and innovation systematic capabilities. This study quantitatively examines the effect of national innovation systems that are designed to improve the performance of innovation. To do so, this study analyzes the effects of financial support from the national research and development (R&D) project, and collaborations between institutions regarding the national innovation systems on patent performance based on citation count, which is a useful indicator of patent quality. Specifically, this study analyzes the effects of financial support from the national R&D project, as well as collaborations between universities, industries, and the government regarding patent performance using the patent data of South Korea. These data were used in congruence with a hurdle negative binomial model, using data from 2010 to 2017. Consequently, this study establishes that financial supports from national R&D project are generally inefficient. The relational aspects of the South Korean innovation systems are also generally inefficient, while collaborations between universities and industries contribute toward improving the performance of alternative energy patents.

Sustaining the Path for Innovation Capability from a Developing Country Perspective: A Conceptual Framework

“…It is worth noting that the publications included in this work conducted in developing countries mainly focus on CLUST_ST, GERD_IND, UNI_IND_COL, and GERD_GEN [21,98,102,109,121,162]. It might be argued that this is due to the recognition of the positive impact of collaborative efforts between university and industry to improve innovation capability, previously reported by developed countries [34,35,97,107], and as a result of this cooperative linkage, innovation funding from public and private sources, as well as the spread of the cluster gain pace [42,106,125,131,162]. In contrast, the study of a trendy topic, for example, the role played by IP_PROTEC in developing innovation capability, is relatively low in this group of countries.…”

“…It refers to the spread of innovation clusters, which reveals the state of innovation systems within a productive sector of a city, country, or region, shaped by innovation policies put in place by the government, industry, market, and other innovation stakeholders [15,35,38,90,92]. Moreover, CLUST_ST is tight to the collaborative linkages between industry, university, and research centers (UNI_IND_COL), reflected in a 12.9% frequency, as CLUST_ST depends largely on the strength of those linkages [4,34,42,101].…”

“…There is a positive impact of sourcing R&D on the innovation capability of a country [95,103,113,125], as "expenditure on R&D reflects the nation's absorptive capacity and represents innovation efforts" [131] (p. 6). However, it also appears that public R&D funding is less effective than private funding concerning the expected results [42,113,114]. In addition, there is a distinction between how universities and enterprises benefit from public funding, as universities seem to benefit more from public R&D funding [34,38,98].…”

“…Patents comprise novelty, invention, and non-obviousness, and the process to register a patent might result exhaustive and expensive. Further, SCIEN_PTNT quality depends on well-organized UNI_IND_COL [34,42,98,127] and on access to R&D funding to support innovation and R&D processes necessary to achieve innovation outputs [81,89,102,108]. Further, UTI_MDELs are a particular form of invention patent that is more affordable and flexible than granting a regular patent [169].…”

“…Despite being a relatively new field of research, several studies have examined the impact of innovation determinants on innovation capability [19,[34][35][36][37][38][39]. However, few studies explore a broad set of innovation determinants to understand their effect on innovation capability and the relationships between them due to the multi-faceted nature of this capability and its complexity [19,[40][41][42][43].…”