Today, Korea is the third largest producer in the world of consumer electronic products and components, and Korean electronics have become the world's third largest industry. It is also the third largest exporter of consumer electronics, but ranks fifth with the inclusion of components and re-exports.
In 1970, Korea sold 55 million U.S. dollars worth of electronics to the world market. In 1992, two decades later, that figure has skyrocketed to 20.7 billion U.S. dollars, over 6 percent of the world market. Despite growing trade restrictions by the U.S. and by the EC, Korean-manufactured personal computers and VCR's now occupy an impressive share of their respective markets all around the globe, with exports representing more than three-quarters of total production.

Methodological Questions
Why has the Korean electronics industry-an obvious latecomer-been so successful? Can this trend continue? And what lessons does this specific case provide, if any, for other industrializing nations?
These are the issues which will be discussed in this paper. But in order to gain a better appreciation for the complexities involved in these topics, one must first understand what has made the consumer electronics industry unique from other industries in recent Korean history.

Contents

I. Introduction

II. History of the Korean Consumer Electronics Industry

III. International Competitiveness of the Korean Electronics Industry

IV. Technology Transfer and Technological Dependence

V. Concluding Remarks

References