An innovation network analysis of science clusters in South Korea and Taiwan

Innovation develops within a diverse group of social entities that form an interwoven structure. The role and relations of regional entities within clusters have become a critical point ofinnovation due to the emphasis of globalization on the importance of regionalcompetitiveness. In this study, we model such interactions via the Triple Helix framework,which can be used to demonstrate the collaborative relations of three entities (university,industry, and government) in an innovation system. This framework allows this research todiagnose the roles and relations of regional innovation institutions and define thecharacteristics of the innovation models for science parks in South Korea and Taiwan;subsequently, this research quantitatively measures two regional university–industry–government network densities to find collaborative knowledge generation. Second, networkcentrality is measured in order to analyse the regional innovation participations’ roles ofcollaboration. Finally, the status of cluster performance is qualitatively compared and relatedto collaboration networks. This study presents an analysis of the structure and position(qualitatively and quantitatively) of regional innovation institutions by applying a TripleHelix model. This case analysis also provides regional innovation policy implications todesign regional innovation systems for developing countries.