The impact of technology transfer / policies on the economic catch-up of the Korean National Innovation System and its implications for Nigeria

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that technology transfer is essential for innovation and knowledge diffusion. However, without appropriate policies, technology transfer cannot be successful. This research studied technology transfer and its policies in Korea with the aim to determine whether it contributed to the catching-up of the Korean economy while seeking to prove Schumpeter’s theory of innovation. In this study, a mixed methodology that involved the use of a systematic review of literature and an analysis of secondary data was employed. The results show that technology transfer policies are essential to economic growth and income generation of the National Innovation System (NIS) while fostering innovation. In line with this, three key policies were discovered that helped the Korean NIS make an economic catch-up from a developing country to a developed country. These are: Intellectual Property Rights, Foreign Direct Investment, and a third class (which was referred to as the general technology transfer policy) of technology transfer policies. These policies improve technology transfers by establishing free trade zones, giving tax breaks to foreign firms and easing the process of foreign direct investment. Based on these results, a policy structure was developed.