Wonkyung Rhee

This paper aims to identify the leading industries and firms of Korea. It tries to make an industry classification based on the concept of technological trajectories, and identifies leading industries by analyzing export and US patent statistics and leading firms by analyzing world-class products and firms. Based on the results of the analysis on leading industries, the information-intensive type of industries has the highest lead index, but has a decreasing trend over the three-year period. The specialized-supplier type and the science-based type tend to increase their position at a rapid speed during the period of 2004-2006. As for specific industries, the shipbuilding industry appeared to have the highest lead index, followed by the electronic parts industry. In identifying the leading firms, it was found that the Chaebol firms have produced many world-class products. SMEs, classified as specialized-supplier and science-based firms, have also innovated technologies and have created good value for foreign wholesalers, thereby generating a large number of world-class products. These findings imply that the Korean economy has been moving at a positive direction. It is believed that the Korean industry has strengthened its technological capability to produce more high-value-added products with deeper scientific and technological knowledge than in the past. Certainly, the Korean industry requires creativity in order to accelerate this development and adopt a new innovation mode.