IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB878982389

Transfer of ‘Engineer’s Mind’: Kim Choong-Ki and the Semiconductor Industry in South Korea (2019)

Dong-Won Kim (Author)

Engineering Studies
Volume: 11
Issue: 2
Pages: 83-108

DOI: 10.1080/19378629.2019.1647218

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2019.1647218

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Technological innovation Technology Technology and government Academically sponsored science Semiconductors 20th century 21st century Korea Kim Choong-Ki

By the mid-2000s, South Korea had become a dominant power in semiconductors, and by the mid-2010s, its worldwide market share of memory had climbed to over 60%. Many scholars have endeavored to discover the secret of the South Korean success but have usually emphasized the roles and contributions of the South Korean government and individual companies in the development of semiconductors, almost totally neglecting those of the South Korean academy. This article analyzes how the South Korean academy contributed to the development and success of the semiconductor industry by examining the life and work of Kim Choong-Ki of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Beginning in 1975, Kim trained the first two generations of semiconductor engineers at KAIST, most of whom became the field’s leading figures in academia, at research institutes, and especially in industry. This study is not a biography of Kim but a critical analysis of how a university professor, not an entrepreneur, became the ‘godfather’ of the semiconductor industry in South Korea. I argue that this was only possible within South Korea’s unique triangular relationship among government, industry, and academia during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB878982389/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Sławomir Łotysz; (2018)
Hot Commodity: Designing, Making and Selling Electric Irons in post-war Poland (/isis/citation/CBB046055033/)

Book Lamoreaux, Naomi R.; Sokoloff, Kenneth Lee; (2007)
Financing Innovation in the United States, 1870 to the Present (/isis/citation/CBB000774188/)

Article Thomson, Ross; (2012)
The Government and Innovation in the United States: Insights from Major Innovators (/isis/citation/CBB001211688/)

Book Joseph Fitsanakis; (2020)
Redesigning Wiretapping: The Digitization of Communications Interception (/isis/citation/CBB949296828/)

Book Linda Weiss; (2014)
America Inc.? Innovation and Enterprise in the National Security State (/isis/citation/CBB377513770/)

Article Kang, Jing; Li, Yanping; (2014)
The Development Process of the First Generation Semiconductor Laser in China (/isis/citation/CBB001214106/)

Article Davids, Mila; Verbong, Geert; (2007)
Absorptive Capacity in Solid-State Technology and International Knowledge Transfer: The Case of Philips (/isis/citation/CBB714062330/)

Article Velosa, Alfonso; (Spring 2005)
Semiconductor Manufacturing: Boom Busts, and Globalization (/isis/citation/CBB903758588/)

Article Denise Tsang; (Autumn 2021)
Innovation in the British Video Game Industry since 1978 (/isis/citation/CBB158141385/)

Book Lipsey, Richard G; Carlaw, Kenneth; Bekar, Clifford; (2005)
Economic transformations: General purpose technologies and long-term economic growth (/isis/citation/CBB001180076/)

Book Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra; (2019)
Automating Finance: Infrastructures, Engineers, and the Making of Electronic Markets (/isis/citation/CBB463429723/)

Article Kim, Hyomin; (2014)
Reconstructing the Public in Old and New Governance: A Korean Case of Nuclear Energy Policy (/isis/citation/CBB001420062/)

Book Cheung, Derek T.; Brach, Eric; (2014)
Conquering the Electron: The Geniuses, Visionaries, Egomaniacs, and Scoundrels Who Built Our Electronic Age (/isis/citation/CBB001422636/)

Article Brice Laurent; Liliana Doganova; Clément Gasull; Fabian Muniesa; (2021)
The Test Bed Island: Tech Business Experimentalism and Exception in Singapore (/isis/citation/CBB212017759/)

Article McMillan, Vernotto C.; (2008)
Technology Transition: A Model for Infusion and Commercialization (/isis/citation/CBB275121586/)

Book Cyrus C. M. Mody; (2016)
The Long Arm of Moore's Law: Microelectronics and American Science (/isis/citation/CBB672178064/)

Article Fri, Robert W.; (Summer 2003)
How Environmental Forces Shape Energy Futures (/isis/citation/CBB299098493/)

Article Radecki, Peter P.; Baker, James R.; (2005)
Notes from the Field: Technology transfer and research institutions (/isis/citation/CBB818053471/)

Article Yoo, Sangwoon; (2020)
Innovation in Practice: The "Technology Drive Policy" and the 4Mb DRAM R&D Consortium in South Korea in the 1980s and 1990s (/isis/citation/CBB687670430/)

Article Frank Fernandez; David P. Baker; Yuan Chih Fu; Ismael G. Muñoz; Karly Sarita Ford; (2021)
A Symbiosis of Access: Proliferating STEM PhD Training in the U.S. from 1920–2010 (/isis/citation/CBB759508673/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}