Abstract:In order to more firmly align the study of Korean regional innovation systems (RIS) with contemporary place-based inquiry into innovation processes, this research deploys a knowledge base and RIS perspective to explore firms' motivations to innovate and spatial variability in firms' use of innovation-supporting infrastructure and external technical support. Results, on the basis of a survey of Korean solar photovoltaic firms, parallel expectations of firms with a synthetic knowledge base and indicate that firm… Show more
“…Ingots/wafers and cells are underrepresented, while installation, components, and equipment are overrepresented. A different study of Korean solar firms (Gress ) that deployed a similar data acquisition method had similar results except for the cell category, which in that study was overrepresented. Three reasons may explain the comparisons: first, while surveys were distributed to firms across the spectrum of the value chain, response rates simply yielded lower numbers for firms farther upstream such as ingots/wafers and cells.…”
Section: Survey Data and Interviewsmentioning
confidence: 67%
“…Other authors (Dewald and Truffer ; Gress ; Kang and Cho ) have also found government support in the way of financing, university involvement, and R&D to be important to solar PV firms. At least one significant, albeit generalized in terms of sectors, econometric study on industry–university linkages and the role of government in Korea, however, found that while national R&D projects best bring about a tripartite of cooperation in Korea, there is little influence on the bottom line, even for innovative Korean firms (Eom and Lee ), a finding supported at the regional level by Gress (). Together, then, a basis is laid for the second RQ: RQ2 Are there differences in national vs. regional government support usage?…”
Section: Theoretical Construct and Rqsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Korea's national government has implemented a series of targeted policies and established solar PV industry R&D and academic bridging support institutes to enable the domestic solar PV industry. There has also been a growing emphasis on the importance of sub‐national scale support to firms active in renewable energy, for example in Italy (Corsatea ), Norway (Klitkou and Coenen ), and Korea (Gress ). As will be discussed later, several regional governments in Korea are in fact competing to build their innovation competencies by locating major firms to their regions, and by making collaborative connections in and across regions.…”
Section: Solar Pv In Korea: Multi‐spatial Industry Background In An Ementioning
confidence: 99%
“…This was indeed the case when data were processed. When all is said and done, however, the KOPIA database is the only one available for Korean firms in this industry, so it is hoped that the data for this study, as it was in the aforementioned study by Gress (), is deemed to be satisfactorily representative.…”
Extra‐firm actors have been acknowledged as vital to the success of green energy industries. This article deploys the firm network perspective to deliver a first of its kind analysis of specific extra‐firm actor impacts on firm performance in Korea's solar photovoltaic industry. Results are based on quantitative analyses of data from 60 firm respondents and augmented by interviews with eight government officials. Three research questions capture and compare firm and government actor perceptions pertaining to extra‐firm actor influences at the national, regional, and extra‐local scales, inclusive of place–place competition and cooperation. Results indicate that firms differ in perceptions related to the impact of 18 national level government institutes, R&D centers, associations, and academic societies on their success, and that perceptions vary by level of technology concerning a plethora of other related extra‐firm actor and support infrastructure impacts. A comparative perspective is presented based on government informant interviews.
“…Ingots/wafers and cells are underrepresented, while installation, components, and equipment are overrepresented. A different study of Korean solar firms (Gress ) that deployed a similar data acquisition method had similar results except for the cell category, which in that study was overrepresented. Three reasons may explain the comparisons: first, while surveys were distributed to firms across the spectrum of the value chain, response rates simply yielded lower numbers for firms farther upstream such as ingots/wafers and cells.…”
Section: Survey Data and Interviewsmentioning
confidence: 67%
“…Other authors (Dewald and Truffer ; Gress ; Kang and Cho ) have also found government support in the way of financing, university involvement, and R&D to be important to solar PV firms. At least one significant, albeit generalized in terms of sectors, econometric study on industry–university linkages and the role of government in Korea, however, found that while national R&D projects best bring about a tripartite of cooperation in Korea, there is little influence on the bottom line, even for innovative Korean firms (Eom and Lee ), a finding supported at the regional level by Gress (). Together, then, a basis is laid for the second RQ: RQ2 Are there differences in national vs. regional government support usage?…”
Section: Theoretical Construct and Rqsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Korea's national government has implemented a series of targeted policies and established solar PV industry R&D and academic bridging support institutes to enable the domestic solar PV industry. There has also been a growing emphasis on the importance of sub‐national scale support to firms active in renewable energy, for example in Italy (Corsatea ), Norway (Klitkou and Coenen ), and Korea (Gress ). As will be discussed later, several regional governments in Korea are in fact competing to build their innovation competencies by locating major firms to their regions, and by making collaborative connections in and across regions.…”
Section: Solar Pv In Korea: Multi‐spatial Industry Background In An Ementioning
confidence: 99%
“…This was indeed the case when data were processed. When all is said and done, however, the KOPIA database is the only one available for Korean firms in this industry, so it is hoped that the data for this study, as it was in the aforementioned study by Gress (), is deemed to be satisfactorily representative.…”
Extra‐firm actors have been acknowledged as vital to the success of green energy industries. This article deploys the firm network perspective to deliver a first of its kind analysis of specific extra‐firm actor impacts on firm performance in Korea's solar photovoltaic industry. Results are based on quantitative analyses of data from 60 firm respondents and augmented by interviews with eight government officials. Three research questions capture and compare firm and government actor perceptions pertaining to extra‐firm actor influences at the national, regional, and extra‐local scales, inclusive of place–place competition and cooperation. Results indicate that firms differ in perceptions related to the impact of 18 national level government institutes, R&D centers, associations, and academic societies on their success, and that perceptions vary by level of technology concerning a plethora of other related extra‐firm actor and support infrastructure impacts. A comparative perspective is presented based on government informant interviews.
“…The introduction and dissemination of innovation at the level of town and rural municipalities is important in the context of the overall increase in private sector investment (Clark et al, 2010). Knowledge-based and technologically advanced areas can reach leading position within the country (Jans et al, 2015, Gress, 2015, Clark et al, 2010.…”
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