Innovation as a Determinant of Growth in Outperforming Emerging Markets: An Analysis of South Korea

Emerging economies and their speed of growth, competitiveness, and resilience are of great interest globally due to the high potential investors see in them. Innovation is one of the factors recognized to be the common ground of significantly outperforming economies. Therefore, identifying innovation benchmarks and how they impact economic success is relevant for a more straightforward evaluation of innovation in a country. This research focuses on the quantitative parts of innovation. Firstly, governmental interference, knowledge flows and networks, cultural and societal preconditions, and openness towards change are identified as notably relevant innovation enhancing factors in South Korea through case study analyses. Then, an analysis of the impact of quantitative innovation factors on the GDP in South Korea is conducted. The impact of quantifiable innovation factors, identified through literature review, on the GDP as the benchmark for economic growth is tested from 1995 until 2018 through a linear, multiple least squares regression to identify significant relationships between the chosen variables. Two out of five selected quantitative innovation factors have a statistically significant impact on the economic growth in the used model. The number of researchers per million people and the patent grants of residents is identified to be impactful innovation benchmarks.