Education is important for sustainable development and drives innovation within national innovation systems. As developed economies move to matured stages of the fourth industrial revolution, the quality of education needs to keep up with the required technological changes brought about by the digital transformation created by these technologies. However, studies on the impact of the digital transformation of the higher education system and its effect on sustainability are few. This study bridged this gap by providing empirical evidence on the subject matter through a synergy of extant studies. The methodology used herein involves a combination of a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis. The results of this study show that the digital transformation of the higher education sector is leading to the development of sustainable curriculums, digitalization of the higher education, enhancement of innovation, and an improvement in the performance of students. It also shows that the future of the digital transformation of the higher education sector will include—the advancement of the concept of ‘Education 4.0’, an increase in gamification within the sector, a rise in the use of datafication in decision making, and the integration of artificial intelligence/augmented intelligence to reform higher education.

Radical technological innovations have transformed competition in high-tech markets. One result of innovation is technological convergence, whereby different technologies are integrated and businesses become more complex, thus blurring industry boundaries. We examine the evolution of firms' strategic positions under technological convergence. Specifically, we analyse the printed electronics industry using patent-centric network indexes and reveal technological intensity using firm-based networks of patent citations. We labelled firms that own core-functional (ink) technology core functional leaders in the patent network of the printed electronics industry. Additionally, we labelled firms that own control-related (device) technology technology integrators and those involved in application-related (electronics) technology application pioneers. Furthermore, we constructed a strategic quadrant framework that categorises firms according to their strategic positioning and evolutionary patterns. We also identified the idiosyncratic patterns of firms' strategic behaviours in each dimension in relation to industrial leadership and regime changes in technological convergence.

Interdisciplinary research (IDR) has been a growing paradigm in science and technology for the past few decades because of the increase in the complexity of scientific and technological innovation. However, only a small amount of research has examined how IDR across different disciplines has developed over the past few decades and its relationship with R&D performance. This study examines the development of IDR in various scientific disciplines from the perspective of science and technology and its relationship to R&D performance. In doing so, we analyze the co-authorship of all the papers and patents produced by government research institutes in the largest innovation cluster in South Korea, that is, Daedeok Innopolis, during 1992 and 2012 using a network analysis. Those institutes each focus on a different specific discipline. We found that not only does the IDR network structure demonstrate that IDR increased over time regardless of the discipline but also that the scope of IDR has expanded across all the research institutes. In addition, the development of IDR in different disciplines varies significantly, depending on the scientific disciplines. Interestingly, we also found that higher interdisciplinarity in scientific publications and patents is significantly correlated with higher R&D performance.

Previous studies have shown that technology transfer is essential for innovation and knowledge diffusion. However, without appropriate policies, technology transfer cannot be successful. This research studied technology transfer and its policies in Korea with the aim to determine whether it contributed to the catching-up of the Korean economy while seeking to prove Schumpeter’s theory of innovation. In this study, a mixed methodology that involved the use of a systematic review of literature and an analysis of secondary data was employed. The results show that technology transfer policies are essential to economic growth and income generation of the National Innovation System (NIS) while fostering innovation. In line with this, three key policies were discovered that helped the Korean NIS make an economic catch-up from a developing country to a developed country. These are: Intellectual Property Rights, Foreign Direct Investment, and a third class (which was referred to as the general technology transfer policy) of technology transfer policies. These policies improve technology transfers by establishing free trade zones, giving tax breaks to foreign firms and easing the process of foreign direct investment. Based on these results, a policy structure was developed.

Radical technological innovations have transformed competition in high-tech markets. One result of innovation is technological convergence, whereby different te