Modes of knowledge transfer from PROs and firm performance: the case of Korea

Abstract

This paper aims to conceptualize the modes of knowledge transfer from PROs and to identify the impacts of the modes on firm performance. To these ends, this utilizes the Survey on Korean industry-university/PRI relationships to estimate the impacts of its mode in terms of the innovation probability, patents and sales of Korean firms. First, we find that non-IP modes of knowledge transfer and patent/licensing from PROs facilitate the innovation probability or the patent-filing of firms, while business activity does not. Second, non-IP modes of knowledge transfer and patent/ licensing from PROs contribute to industrial innovation, by creat- ing new knowledge through patents, but they face limitations in industrializing knowledge through sales. Third, non-IP modes of knowledge transfer facilitate industrial innovation, through the patent-filing, only in the high-tech industries, while they still face limitations, through sales, even in these industries. This reflect the nature of knowledge industrialization in Korea, and we suggest several policy implications.