earticle

영어

Up until recently, the national and local governments in Korea have focused on growing the small and mid-sized enterprises(SMEs) in local areas to achieve regional economic development. At the hub of this activity, the supporting agencies such as technoparks have played very significant role. This study, therefore, aims at investigating whether the technoparks in Korea have performed their roles for high-tech SMEs and identifying their economic impacts on regional economy. By focusing on the case of technopark development, the study reviews the process of technopark development in Korea and analyzes the impact of technoparks on the regional economy through regression analysis. From the empirical evidence, this study shows that each technopark has significant impact on not only increasing the number of local-based small and mid-sized enterprises, but also achieving regional development. The results of this study indicate that the existence of high-tech supporting agencies in a locality such as technoparks is very important to accomplish regional economic development. The policy implications for better regional success are twofold. First, the central and local governments should consider technoparks as a technology infrastructure for the socio-economic integration of a region. Second, the economic impacts of technoparks are large enough to justify the financial support from the governments in the future.