A comparative study of managerial features between public and private R&D organisations in Korea: managerial and policy implications for public R&D organisations
by Youngbae Kim, Byungheon Lee, Yooncheol Lim
International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM), Vol. 17, No. 3, 1999

Abstract: Over the past several years, it has been pointed out that public research institutes are less productive than private ones; moreover, they need to clarify their roles in the development of Korea's national system of innovation. With a view to identifying the causes of problems in public R&D activities, this study examines three pairs of government-sponsored research institutes (GSRIs) and private R&D organisations in Korea; it compares their strategic goals, the roles of their top managers, their organisational characteristics, and the attitudes of individual researchers. The results, based on responses from 570 R&D managers and professionals in both sectors, reveal the following compared with private R&D organisations, GSRIs: 1) have relatively less clear strategic goals and R&D objectives; 2) their R&D activities are very broad and not well focused; 3) their top management plays a biased external role in order to gain institutional legitimacy; 4) their organisational structure tends to be more decentralised but less flexible; 5) their R&D work climates exhibit higher autonomy, cohesiveness, work-pressure, and risk-taking propensity, but display lower customer-orientation and less fairness in a reward system; and 6) the researchers are dissatisfied with their jobs and organisational incentive systems, and also less committed to the organisation. As an attempt to understand the root causes of the salient features of GSRIs, this study further explores the impacts of external environments over the period of their development, including the government Science and Technology policy, the national project funding and accounting systems, and institutional regulations, on their internal management systems. Findings of distinctive managerial features of GSRIs and their relationships with external environments suggest several managerial and policy implications for designing more effective R&D management systems of GSRIs in Korea.

Online publication date: Sat, 05-Jul-2003

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com