R&D Internationalization in Developing Country: A Study Focused on Case Studies of Korea´s International Joint Research Projects

Knowledge creation by technology-based enterprises is increasingly becoming internationalized. In numerous technology-based companies attempt to position their R&D centers in places where markets are rapidly growing or new technologies are actively developed. Then what are key factors in R&D internationalization of developing countries? How do those factors result in such diversified patterns of internationalization? Are they, in fact, related to the rapid growth of IT technologies in Korea? One of objectives of this study is to define the nature of Korea´s R&D internationalization, which has been making rapid progress recently. With this objective, we examined the cases of research projects conducted jointly with major international R&D institutes, and inducement of foreign R&D centers, analyzing the pattern of cooperative activities. The targets of case study were international joint research projects conducted during the period from 1998 through 2000, under sponsorship of MIC (Ministry of Information and Communication). We also conducted survey on motives of multinational corporations which have recently established R&D centers in Korea. For the research, we made reference to documents relating R&D activities in IT industry published by government agencies and research administration bodies, as well as relevant articles. Due to the nature of R&D activities in IT industry, which limits the usefulness of documents in identifying their distinctive features, we also interviewed with key researchers engaging in the projects. Motives, objectives and issues were surveyed through structural interviews, and industrial, technological features were identified through non-structural interviews