Foreign R&D Centers in Korea and Government Policy

In today's globalized economy, foreign R&D activities play an important role in the national innovation system. A foreign R&D center brings both positive and negative effects. The host country expects the foreign R&D center to create jobs, transfer advanced knowledge to local industry and contribute to the qualitative growth of industry; whereas, foreign R&D centers wish to utilize the R&D resources and technological assets of the host country. The Korean government has been trying recently to attract more foreign R&D centers. However, foreign R&D centers in Korea have been discovered not to be active in R&D activities, and their major role is to support product modification rather than develop new products. They perceive Korea's R&D environment as being less than favorable. It is argued herein that foreign R&D centers in Korea are at the developing stage and would bring more positive effects to Korea if the right R&D environment was provided. In this sense, the role of government in foreign R&D activities is discussed and policy directions are suggested for the Korean government