Over the past forty years, Korea has shown remarkable economic growth with drastic changes in its national innovation system (NIS). In general, government research organisations play a very important role in the NIS, especially in developing countries where science and technology resources are lacking. Since Korea has developed its current national innovation system from virtually nothing, it is worth analysing the Korean government research institutes (KGRIs) in the context of Korea's NIS (KNIS) development. To this end, this article describes the concept of NIS for the analytical framework, and presents how KNIS has changed in response to the economic and industrial changes of Korea. Then the changes of KGRIs to changing KNIS are categorised over several periods. It is argued that such changes are in fact evolutionary responses and the outcome of Korean government S&T policies. Finally, the article concludes with some policy implications for other developing countries.
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