Synergy or separation mode: the relationship between the academic research and the knowledge transfer activities of Korean academics

What factors influence the relationships between academic research and knowledge transfer activities of academics? Considering this research question, review of both existing theoretical issues and empirical studies is presented. Accordingly, a conceptual framework is suggested based on synergy and separation modes. Moreover, various hypotheses those emerged from the interviews as well as from previous studies are tested by statistical models. Finally, considering the characteristics of scientific communities in rapidly catching-up counties such as Korea, a discussion of the results is provided. According to the results, not only individual characteristics (i.e. the gender, age, disciplines of academics, patenting activity, etc.) but also contextual characteristics (i.e. laboratory size and type of university) are significantly related to the generation of synergy mode (i.e. a positive relationship between academic research and knowledge-transfer activities) among academics.