2022, Vol.31, No.2

Journal of Regulation Studies 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.78

pISSN : 1738-7132
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ksrs2002

This study analyzes the mechanism by which policy narratives of the advocacy coalitions work on policy changes on protection and utilization of personal information. A case study using NPF(Narrative Policy Framework) was conducted, combining literature analysis, big data analysis on news articles, which empirically verifies the policy narrative elements and strategies and in-depth interview of experts such as government officials, lawyers, and citizen activists to enhance analytical and contextual understanding. The major findings are as follows. The pro-protection and pro-utilization coalitions competed to convert their policy beliefs into policies using narrative components and strategies of NPF under the core belief of protecting basic rights and economic values, respectively. However, the various policy narrative strategies by pro-utilization coalition, such as positive encouragement for Fintech companies, use of symbolic words called "Three Laws of Data Protection and Utilization," framing strategy to replace personal information with national economic development were effective in getting approval from the public. More diverse narratives such as linkage of the use of personal information to positive words like safety, fairness and inclusive growth, and melodramatic story-telling helped to persuade the public. As public support and social deliberation become important in policy formation and change, advocacy coalitions competing for policy alternatives need to strategically organize and utilize policy narratives. Especially in policy areas related to economic interests, to use narratives that form a positive images such as benefits is suggested to form a favorable public opinion.

This study aims to examine whether regulations have different effects on product innovation depending on the firms size. In addition, it was intended to check whether the technology intensity had an interaction effect. According to the analysis results, it was confirmed that Korean manufacturing companies had different results on product innovation depending on firms size, regulatory type, and technology intensity. These results verify that the effect of regulation on each firms size in radical and gradual product innovation is different, and the impact of regulation on product innovation performance varies depending on the degree of technology intensity.

With the recent rapid growth in online intermediation services, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) proposed a bill in 2020 aiming to prevent unfair trade practices and promote innovation. Legislation of the bill has been proactively driven by the KFTC and is scheduled to be deliberated at the Parliament after being approved at the Cabinet meeting. The key ideas of the bill have been adopted from regulatory framework of the EU, who had long been a world leader in regulating the tech sector. This study explores how the Korean regulators made their regulatory choices and why they made such decision, from the perspective of cross-national policy transfer. In doing so, this paper analyzes the distinguished regulatory frameworks of the South Korean and EU regimes, as well as the different business landscapes of the two jurisdictions. Through the analysis, this study finds that policy transfer is seemingly an ‘easy’ tool but how it operates is much more complex, because every jurisdiction has a distinguishably unique environment –both in business and regulatory terms. The South Korean government’s attempt to adopt a new regulation from the EU framework misses numerous points as it decided to accelerate the legislation process instead of tailoring the law to the Korea-specific situation with more delicacy. The unclarity of the legislation also leaves burden to the business sector, but a significant learning is learned of policy transfer - that policy transfer can be used as an effective and convenient tool only if the ‘adopter’ takes a thorough and robust approach in preparing a policy strategy that is delicately tailored to the domestic business and regulatory environment.