Neo-developmental states in the twenty-first century: technological upgrading in the Korean telecommunications sector

Abstract

Korean firms are relatively new entrants in the race to set new technological standards in the international telecommunications sector. However, these endeavours were not undertaken alone: the Korean state has worked in partnership with domestic firms to support their transition from being fast-followers to innovators. The international standardization of Korean-developed technologies has occurred despite intense criticism from foreign trade partners, principally the United States, who frequently called into question the consistency of the Korean government’s actions with the rules of the World Trade Organization. What do the actions of the Korean state tell us about how states with strategic industry objectives have coped with renewed pressures for ideological and regulatory harmonisation pursued by the United States in the post-Cold War era? Through examining the development of a new wireless communication technology, this paper shows how the Korean state deployed new and existing forms of public and private interaction to support technological upgrading. Rather than being a constraining force, the Korean state responded to bi-lateral trade pressure exerted by the United States by using multilateral trade rules to upgrade the innovation capabilities of domestic firms.