본 연구는 정부의 유인적 정책수단인 재정지원과, 기업의 협력 네트워크가 기업의탐색적 기술혁신 성과에 미치는 영향을 탐구하는 것을 목적으로 한다. 최근 혁신정책의골자가 협력 네트워크가 되면서 정부의 재정지원은 기업의 혁신활동을 재정적으로지원할 뿐 아니라 기업의 협력 네트워크 형성 또한 촉진하도록 고안되어 실행되고있다. 유인적 정책수단인 재정지원과 협력 네트워크를 함께 다루는 기존 실증분석연구가 정책효과 분석에 머물렀다면 본 연구는 이에 더 나가 유인적 정책수단이 기업의기술혁신 성과에 미치는 영향을 협력 네트워크가 양의 방향으로 매개한다는 이론적가설을 세우고 한국의 전체 제조업을 대표하는 데이터를 이용해 이를 실증분석 한다.
이를 통해 유인적 정책수단이 기업의 기술혁신 성과에 어떻게, 왜 영향을 미치는지를협력 네트워크의 매개효과를 통해 설명한다. 2005년 기술혁신조사를 사용해 매개변수분석을 실시하며 주요 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 정부의 재정지원은 기업이 혁신을시도한 이후에도 협력 네트워크 효과를 통해 간접적으로 기업이 탐색적 혁신에성공하는데 긍정적 영향을 미친다. 둘째, 이러한 협력 네트워크의 매개효과는 특히중소기업의 경우 더욱 중요하게 작용하고 있었다.
This study analyses how incentive policy instruments, such as R&D subsidies and R&D tax expenditures, affect firms’ exploration innovative output. According to J. G. March (1991), exploration and exploitation are two dimensions of organization learning. Exploration is search for new knowledge,use of unfamiliar technologies, and creation of products with unknown demand while exploitation is use of existing knowledge, technologies, and products. In the last decade, the Korean government has tried to advance its national innovation system, encouraging companies to be developers and not just adopters of innovation - in other words, explorers not just exploiters. South Korea has successfully caught up with advanced economies by adopting and adapting imported technologies at a rapid rate.
There have been a number of theoretical and empirical studies on the effects of incentive policy instruments on business innovation. Current research generally acknowledges the positive affects of R&D subsidies and tax expenditures on the innovation output of companies. Furthermore, in the literature on knowledge spillover, it is widely accepted that cooperation networks positively affect firms’ achievement of exploration innovation.
At the same time, many governments have planned their most recent incentive policy instruments and tax expenditures around promoting innovation networks, putting a strong focus on developing national innovation systems. These policies promote participation from companies in a cooperative set of innovation-focused organizations including enterprises, research institutions and policy making organizations in order to share knowledge and jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies.
From the perspective of innovation systems, a government acts as a participant organization,not only interacting with others in a system but also influencing the whole system. For instance,among the Korean government’s expenditures on national R&D projects during 2005~2011, 57~75%was recently invested on cooperative innovation activities, and enterprises were the most active network participants. Governments’ focus on research and business clusters is also an example of R&D tax expenditures working towards a cooperative network model. And government evaluation and approval of enterprise research proposals serves as a quality certificate and cooperation vetting mechanism, promoting qualified participants to network status.
Accordingly there is a high likelihood that incentive policy instruments and innovation cooperation networks affect business innovation simultaneously. Nonetheless, little research has been conducted on this interplay. This study analyses the mediating role of cooperation networks on the recipients of incentive policy instruments and their business innovation output.
Based on current literature, we proposed the following hypotheses for analysis:Hypothesis 1: If a company gets financial support from the government, it is more likely to participate in an innovation cooperative network.
Hypothesis 2: If a company participates in an innovation cooperation network, it is more likely to achieve exploration innovation.
Hypothesis 3: Cooperation networks act as a mediator between receiving incentive policy instrument benefit and achieving exploration innovation Using detailed data on firms’ characteristics and innovative activities in the 2005 Korea Innovation Survey (KIS) conducted by the Science Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), we employed the mediating effect test developed by Baron and Kenny (1986) to empirically test these hypotheses.
(Note: The KIS is based on The Oslo Manual 3rd edition suggested by the OECD, and uses a combined questionnaire and survey method which is compatible and comparable with the Community Innovation Survey conducted by European Union (EU) member states. The KIS survey is approved by the Korean National Statistical Office and used as a designated statistic.)The results broadly support the hypothesis that cooperative networks act as a mediator between receiving incentive policy instrument benefit and achieving exploration innovation. Furthermore,the results reveal more detailed information about firms, innovation type, and mechanisms. First,the study reveals the mechanism of how government policy encourages business innovation output,especially high-novelty innovation output at the firm level. Second, the mediating role of organizations’cooperative networks is more crucial for medium and small-sized companies than for large companies.
In large companies, the mechanism of the cooperative network is crucial: the impact of government-led cooperation networks on exploration innovation success was negligible, while the impact of spontaneously organized networks is significant. The study underlines the importance of developing further policy instruments aimed at facilitating companies’ search for appropriate partners and spontaneous participation in cooperative networks, as well as the appropriate role for government as an actor in and influencer of a national innovation system striving for breakthrough innovation.
