The Korea Local Administration Review

This paper examines the spatial networks of automobile part suppliers in the Young Nam Region in Korea for their innovation activities. By focusing on the supply chains of automobile parts, this paper analyzes the interactions among economic organizations and their geographical linkages. First, the part supply chain affects the spatial networks. There are strong spatial linkages between the places of producing automobile parts in the Youngnam region and the places of assembling parts, such as Ulsan, Chungcheong, and the Seoul metropolitan area. Second, the innovation activities of part suppliers are not closely related to the research institutions but to the part buyers. Even though the research institutions at the Seoul metropolitan area play an important role, the part buyers largely help the innovation activities of the part suppliers in the Youngnam region. This leads to the strong spatial linkages between the places of automobile part buyers and suppliers in Korea.