International knowledge sourcing and national technological development when the internationalization of r&d is historically weak: a study of the Korean case

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the international knowledge sourcing of firms located in a home country with weak internationalization of R&D. in the international business literature, much attention has been devoted to analyzing the role of subsidiaries in foreign countries for knowledge transfer and exchange in a multinational corporation (MNC) internal network. However, South Korea has developed strong technological capabilities in firms based in the home country through several other channels of international knowledge sourcing, rather than through the R&D activities of subsidiaries of these firms abroad. Thus, studying the determinants of the knowledge sourcing of firms in Korea can provide us with some new perspectives on knowledge sourcing behavior, and so enrich the literature on knowledge sourcing and international business, by shedding light on a broader set of issues in cross-border knowledge sourcing. This research examines 1) the impact of Korea’s comparative technological development and 2) the effects of the relative openness of an industry, on the knowledge sourcing behavior of firms in Korea, using patent citation data derived from the USPTO patent database held at Rutgers University. We find that Korea’s comparative technological development influences firms’ international knowledge sourcing, its degree of technological field dispersion and its cross-country geography. We also find that international connectedness associated with the relative openness of an industry plays an important role in international knowledge sourcing both within and between industry in the home country, by facilitating access to knowledge in foreign countries, and by accumulating stronger technological capabilities in that are more open industries. The findings and issues discussed in this dissertation may be applicable in the development of public policies in many emerging market countries to boost domestic capacity for international knowledge sourcing in order to better catch-up with the advanced technologies that are available in selected locations around the world.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Se Ho Ch