IT R&D Outcomes and Technology Knowledge Flows in Korea

We measured the R&D outcomes of Korea's firms by analyzing the change and the pattern of technology knowledge flows and compared IT R&D outcomes with non-IT R&D outcomes. Using the registered patent data of 2008 and 2009 and their citing patent data till July 2012, we computed technology cycle time (TCT) and various centrality indexes by patent citation analyses (PCA) including social network analysis (SNA). Having done these analyses, we additionally conducted a confirmatory statistical test to compare IT R&D with non-IT R&D in terms of their performances. We found that IT R&D in Korea's firms achieves higher levels of technology development speed, technology spillover and industry absorption, when compared to non-IT segments.