Regional Development in South Korea

Accounting for Research Area in Centrality and Networks

Matthew A. ShapiroMin-Ho So

Young-Long KimHan Woo Park

Research questionsHow does Seoul continue to dominate?

The Seoul “macrocluster” Kim (2010); Sohn and Kenney (2007)

Are other regions buregeoning leaders?

Key variables Networks between regional innovation systems

Regional innovation fosters innovation through UIG relations

Policies Focus on particular research areas Emphasis on equalization across regions

Research questions (cont.)Dependent variable

Centrality of research networks

Convergence Variant of Hirshman (1958) R&D without centralization the possibility

remains for catch-up through collaboration Countering Surowiecki (2005)

Hypotheses1) Networks and specialization are a positive

function of timeGeographies may share expertise based on

industrial focusIncreased specialization could lead to more networks

with other regions

2) Networks are concentrated around single rather than multiple regions

3) The equalization policy has led to convergence in degree centrality across geographic areas

DataLongitudinal: 1981-200916 geographic areas

Seoul, 6 additional cities, 9 provinces20 ISI subject categoriesJournal article data

Science Citation Index (SCI) database Web of Science

Korean residents classified by city/provinceCoauthorship is assumed to feed knowledge-

based innovation across boundaries

MethodSocial network analysis

Normalized measures of degree centrality Wasserman and Faust (1994) Exploratory

Identifying trends across research specializations Explanatory

Why do such trends exist?

Each research area assessed in terms of centrality degree and a scale-dependent normalized degree

ConclusionFurther verification of Shapiro, et al. (2010)

Seoul continues to be the main research hubOpportunity for other regions – besides

Gyeonggi and Daejeon – to replicate Seoul ended in 1994 Why? Application of the Cooperative R&D

Promotion Law to Gyeonggi and Daejeon in particular

A pattern of convergencePotential for other regions to be drawn in

through launching of MEST and MKENeed for structural changes