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Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2019 A New Approach to the Evolution of Collaboration Platforms: The Case of South Korea’s Convergence Alliances Heeyoung Jang Minsun Kim Sungmin Cho Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Korea Institute of Industrial Technology [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Jongho Lee Hongbum Kim* Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Korea Institute of Industrial Technology [email protected] [email protected] * Corresponding author Abstract since 2000, there have been no new industries that can generate economy leverage in Korea. While organizations and alliances for collaboration Many studies have demonstrated that among the have been promoted by governments for many years, various factors affecting Korea’s rapid economic their performance has not been very meaningful in growth in the twentieth century, government-led terms of activation or outcome, particularly in South industrial policies were the main cause of the economic Korea. Thus, as a tool for creating new industries and development (e.g., [1]). However, in the current growth engines, a new form of collaboration complex economic environment, arguments for platform—convergence alliances—is being promoted maintaining government-led industrial policies are now in South Korea. In order to explore the distinct not appropriate and this is why a new type of economic characteristics and advantages of convergence growth paradigm is necessary. alliances, this research compares this new type of The government, media, scholars, and practitioners platform with existing collaboration platforms. By now emphasize that new strategies for economic using a case analysis framework with in-depth growth must be developed that will help Korea adapt to interviews, this research suggests several implications the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Since being for promoting convergence alliances, including the included as the main agenda at the 2016 World combination of manufacturing and service industries, Economic Forum [2], the Fourth Industrial Revolution more opportunities for small- and medium-sized has become a very important and frequently used key enterprises, the avoidance of opportunistic behaviors, phrase in politics, economics, and society in Korea. the development of new types of objectives, and the Firms are attempting to improve their core introduction of relevant policy actions and government competencies in order to survive the endless support. competition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. For activating private sector-driven growth, Korea’s government has also suggested several policy actions for creating new industries (e.g., [3]). Specifically, 1. Introduction these policy actions focus on establishing supportive institutions and providing direct support to small and Recently, South Korea (hereafter, Korea) has been medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For example, the facing difficulties in achieving new industrial growth. government is conducting active deregulation in order While Korea has demonstrated remarkable levels of for new business models to be easily marketed and is economic growth not seen in any other country in the switching its system from uniform and balanced twentieth century, the speed of economic growth has support to open, innovative, and challengeable support. been relatively stagnant in the twenty-first century. The One remarkable policy action is the support of successful transition from light industry to heavy collaboration platforms. Many collaboration platforms industry and information and communication comprising industry, academia, research institutes, and technology led Korea to become one of the fastest other innovation actors have been established for growing economies in the twentieth century. However, achieving common objectives. However, the collaboration platform pursued by recent policy action, URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/59480 ISBN: 978-0-9981331-2-6 Page 400 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) the ‘convergence alliance,’ has expanded both The case study has been widely used in similar vertically and horizontally. In addition to the research because it is appropriate for comparing traditional concept of strategic or R&D alliances [4] complex organizational structures. Specifically, as the [5] [6], the convergence alliances in this study include primary concerns of the study, collaboration platforms convergence characteristics, namely, actors and are procedurally contrasting organizations [8]. technologies from heterogeneous knowledge areas Therefore, it is useful to adopt the case study converging for innovation activities. Furthermore, in framework. order to create more varied and practical outcomes, As a theoretical lens, this study uses technology convergence alliances are implemented differently innovation and management literature. Analogous to compared to publicly led collaboration platforms. the knowledge ecology, the field of innovation While government and public research institutes are management primarily covers networks, collaboration, also included in convergence alliances, their and alliances for the innovative activities of participation is only permitted based on the needs of organizations [9]. the incumbents. We gathered data from various sources. First, we Although various organizations or alliances for reviewed policy and research papers and media articles collaboration have been promoted by the government published by governments, organizations, and for many years, their contribution to the economy was associated institutes. We also reviewed annual reports not so meaningful in terms of activation or outcome. that each convergence alliance published at the end of Despite this, the importance of cross-organizational the year 2017. In addition, for an objective perspective, relationships was still emphasized [7], and the we explored media articles and industry reports. government recognized the need for consistent support, Finally, we conducted in-depth interviews with the resulting in appropriate policy actions. In other words, administrative organization of each convergence it is necessary to compare traditional collaboration alliance to gather supplementary data on their platforms and the newly emerging platform, the backgrounds, processes, discourses, and other evidence convergence alliance, and analyze their structure, that could not be found elsewhere. Specifically, the organization, and the way they operate in order to main content of the in-depth interviews were current understand the evolution of the new direction of collaborations with other organizations, new collaboration platforms. collaboration plans with different convergence The purpose of this research is to explore the alliances, expected R&D projects and business models, convergence alliance as a collaboration platform and to the need for government support, and difficulties in compare it with different collaboration platforms. In operating convergence alliances. The interviews were order to analyze its advantages, we reviewed several conducted face-to-face in several different meetings for materials including newspapers, government three weeks from June to July 2017. publications, industrial reports, and research papers, Additionally, for the validation of collected data, and conducted in-depth interviews to collect we conducted validity procedures [10] including peer supplementary information. As a theoretical lens, reviews by independent researchers in academia, studies in technology innovation and management government, and research institutes. While they were were reviewed and discussed, and several implications external to this study, they are familiar with the history were elicited for the further evolution of collaboration and structure of convergence alliances. The collected platforms. data were thoroughly audited, reviewed, and confirmed The remainder of this paper is set out as follows. by the researchers and thus the credibility of the First, the research methodology is provided in Section qualitative data was established. Table 1 summarizes 2. The background, needs, and status of convergence the in-depth interviews and the validation procedures. alliances are reviewed in Section 3. Next, the current popular collaboration platforms worldwide are 3. Convergence alliance: Its meaning and explored in Section 4 and compared to convergence alliances for case analysis in Section 5. Discussion is status made and several implications are suggested in Section 6, and finally the conclusion and limitations are For the development of new industries, the presented in Section 7. convergence between technologies and sectors is important. For example, an automobile produced today 2. Research methodology can be considered as a convergence product with connectivity technology that enables two-way communication. Moreover, it is evolving into a smart For the comparison between collaboration car that comprehensively considers different platforms, this research uses a case analysis framework. Page 401 Table 1. Summary of data collection In-depth interview Validation procedure Sector # of Interviewees Sector # of validations Industry 7 Academia 1 Government 1 Government 2 Research institute 1 Research institute 3 Public organization 6 Total 15 Total 6 environments such as pedestrians, traffic, and other markets. In particular, large companies in convergence vehicles. alliances can become a direct customer of SMEs.

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