Technological catch-up and the role of universities : South Korea’s innovation-based growth explained through the Corporate Helix model

Linkages between industry and university have become crucial for knowledge discovery and driving industrialization within fast-paced global competition and technological evolution. This study offers a pair-wise cross-case analysis of the transitioning of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) to become entrepreneurial universities through the Corporate Helix model. POSTECH and SKKU demonstrated divergent routes but convergent outcomes in technological catch-up during the double helix formation stage. Through the relationship triad POSTECH shares with the Industry and Government after being established by Pohang Steel Company, it has been committed to launching Korea into the forefront of innovative science and technology in the twenty-first century. As a result of its acquisition and intensive investment from Samsung for almost over two decades, SKKU has become one of the top schools in South Korea while interacting closely with the industry and government to cultivate the efficacy of South Korea’s national innovation system. The Corporate Helix model takes into account the university which lacks the resources and capability to become entrepreneurial and to participate in a nation’s technological catch-up to innovation-based growth. The cases of POSTECH and SKKU offer key propositions that a university can be established or acquired by the industry and through this partnership undergo transformation to become entrepreneurial.