Established in 1976, The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) serves as Korea’s only government-funded research institute specializing in industrial research and dedicated to the development of national economic and industrial policy. KIET is committed to bolstering competitiveness and strengthening the foundation of Korean industry through the formulation of effective policies that enable industries to adapt to a rapidly changing global industrial environment.
The main contents of this study are organized as follows. First, we look at a literature review on research achievements that approach the principle of cluster formation from a network perspective. Second, the necessity of regional-specific smart specialization policies and new directions of regional industrial policies will be explored through derivation of achievements and implications for the implementation of Korean industrial cluster policies. Third, a survey on the characteristics of corporate transactions is conducted to confirm whether corporate transactions are a factor that forms an industrial cluster. Fourth, we present an industry Atlas model that extracts industrial networks from big data of inter-company transactions, and apply this model to measure the hierarchical structure and innovation capabilities of regional industrial networks in 14 metropolitan cities. Finally, a smart specialization strategy and regional industry policy tasks to reinforce regional economic innovation capabilities are presented using the results of regional industry hierarchy and innovation capabilities.