This study is to examine the factors and action plans for the effective university-industry cooperation strategy in the Korean telecommunications industry. National Innovation System approach is employed as an analytic framework for the study. For the sake of the relevance of adopting NIS approach to explain university-industry collaboration strategy especially in the telecommunications industry, this study analyzes the industrial characteristics of, and the role of government policy in telecommunications.
The concept of NIS, which has been spotlighted since the 1980s, has played the role of groundwork to explain the innovative activities and to build the innovative mechanism within the national border. Based on this concept, this study diagnoses the status quo of university-industry cooperation in Korea. In addition, it suggests the action plans required to promote university-industry cooperation strategy and to improve its effectiveness.
Reviewing various investigations on university-industry cooperation, this study supplements the previous perspectives and theories with NIS approach. More on that, the significant role of university-industry cooperation strategy in the competitiveness of Korean telecommunications is emphasized.
This study aims to answer the following questions.
(1) What is National Innovation System and what implication does it give to the analysis of university-industry collaboration strategy in telecommunications industry?
(2) How can the status quo of Korean telecommunications industry and university-industry collaboration be assessed based on NIS framework?
(3) What suggestions and action plans can be made for Korea from the comparison with the experiences and examples of other countries?
This study conclusively proposes the following plans for the effective strategy of university-industry cooperation.
(1) Systemization of collaborative work: functionally categorize the innovative activities and R&D budget based on the principle of division of labor
(2) Exploration of appropriate R&D target for collaboration and determination of the scale and degree of participation among partners
(3) Integration and control by way of streamlining organizational structure, decision structure, incentive systems and communication network
(4) Issue of affinity: specialization of R&D activity to meet the requirement of the geographical basis
(5) Comprehensive planning and programming of collaborative R&D with efforts to close the gap between partners' cultures and objectives
(6) Adoption of team organizational structure, promotion of teamwork, and decentralization of decision-making
(7) Consciousness of the regulatory and legal aspects as well as of the technological matters and inclusive consideration of various factors related with the project
(8) Institutionalization and promotion of collaborative R&D centers, which will secure the innovative activities in a constant and stable manner
(9) More aggressive plans for the collaborative R&D with business entities on the part of university itself
(10) Balanced development: assist and promote the institutes which have been relatively neglected or alienated in terms of support for collaborative R&D programs
