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<p>This study examines how science and technology (S&amp;T) governance structures are reconfigured in response to political leadership transitions within a specific Triple Helix (TH) regime, focusing on North Korea’s highly state-coordinated S&amp;T system. Using a scientometric approach based on co-authorship data from a North Korean scientific journal, the study compares institutional collaboration networks across two successive political leadership periods (2000–2011 and 2012–2019). The findings reveal systematic and consequential changes in the structural configuration of university-industry-government relations following the leadership transition. While North Korea’s S&amp;T system remains fundamentally embedded within a statist TH I configuration, the later period exhibits reduced network fragmentation, higher overall connectivity, strengthened state-centered coordination through government research institutions, and greater structural embedding of industry actors. Additionally, universities show weakened brokerage roles, increased structural constraints, and more inward-oriented collaboration patterns. Despite policy rhetoric emphasizing a shift toward a knowledge-based economy, these structural changes fall short of a substantive transition toward a balanced and interactive TH III model characterized by institutional openness and boundary-spanning university brokerage. Overall, the findings reveal that leadership transitions can trigger substantive but constrained reconfigurations in S&amp;T governance structures without fundamentally altering the underlying TH configuration, thereby contributing to theoretical understanding of TH dynamics in highly state-coordinated S&amp;T systems.</p>

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Structural reconfiguration of science and technology governance in a state-dominated system: scientometric evidence from research collaboration networks in North Korea

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月30日

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  • Jungwon Yoon

摘要

This study examines how science and technology (S&T) governance structures are reconfigured in response to political leadership transitions within a specific Triple Helix (TH) regime, focusing on North Korea’s highly state-coordinated S&T system. Using a scientometric approach based on co-authorship data from a North Korean scientific journal, the study compares institutional collaboration networks across two successive political leadership periods (2000–2011 and 2012–2019). The findings reveal systematic and consequential changes in the structural configuration of university-industry-government relations following the leadership transition. While North Korea’s S&T system remains fundamentally embedded within a statist TH I configuration, the later period exhibits reduced network fragmentation, higher overall connectivity, strengthened state-centered coordination through government research institutions, and greater structural embedding of industry actors. Additionally, universities show weakened brokerage roles, increased structural constraints, and more inward-oriented collaboration patterns. Despite policy rhetoric emphasizing a shift toward a knowledge-based economy, these structural changes fall short of a substantive transition toward a balanced and interactive TH III model characterized by institutional openness and boundary-spanning university brokerage. Overall, the findings reveal that leadership transitions can trigger substantive but constrained reconfigurations in S&T governance structures without fundamentally altering the underlying TH configuration, thereby contributing to theoretical understanding of TH dynamics in highly state-coordinated S&T systems.