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Download or read book User Innovation in Korean Manufacturing Firms written by Youngbae Kim and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study we examine the user development of process technologies and protection of these innovations in manufacturing industries in a late industrializing context, Korea. Using data from both KIS 2008 and a follow-up survey, we study the characteristics of user innovations and user-innovators, as well as the protection of user innovations.This study has two major findings and a number of minor findings. The major findings are, first, that the incidence of user innovations in Korea is quite significant. Firms that are larger, more technologically capable, with a higher export ratio, or that belong to a business group are more likely to be a user-innovator in Korea. Second, we find that the proportion of user innovations sharing by innovators with other firms is much lower (3.2%) than that found in similar studies conducted in Canada and the Netherlands (about 20%). We suggest that the lower incidence and transfer of user innovation in Korean manufacturing industries may be due to the lower level of technological capability and social trust, and also due to the closed nature of the buyer-supplier relationship dominated by a few large Chaebols.The study concludes by discussing managerial and policy steps that could be used to encourage user innovation and its transfer in the Korean manufacturing sectors.