The roles of networks among innovators in regional innovation: comparative analysis between China and South Korea

In port cities, terminal operating companies (TOCs) are considered as regional innovators. Numerous studies have attempted to find their characteristics; however, relatively few studies have been devoted to exploring softer factors such as human resources or networks with other innovators such as universities and government agencies, not hard factors such as available cargo and cargo processing ability. Therefore, this study aims to examine both hard and softer factors perceived by 232 South Korean and Chinese regional innovators, TOC; the empirical relationships among these characteristics, networks among regional innovators such as industry–university–government networks (I–U–G networks), and regional innovation, the moderating role of the I–U–G networks in improving the regional innovation, and the comparative analysis between Chinese and Korean cases. To achieve these research purposes, an empirical model was employed. As a result, excepting government support policy, remaining variables significantly affected regional innovation. Further, the I–U–G networks moderated the relationships between determinants and regional innovation. These results imply that establishing effective I–U–G networks was pivotal in achieving regional innovation. In addition, this study provides a contribution, that there are national differences due to each other’s different environmental characteristics, by comparing characteristics between Korean and Chinese regional innovators with different characteristics.