Platform design and imitative innovation inside the transition black-box: Korean nuclear power plant APR1400 case

Abstract

This research focuses on a platform-design building momentum and an imitative innovation capability for the successful transition of a catch-up country into its post catch-up stage. Through the analysis of Korean nuclear power plant APR1400 development case with its specific process inside the transition black-box, APR1400 is proposed as a platform design with a common technological architecture that is indigenously established by Korea through a partial reconfiguration of the dominant design imported from leading countries. APR1400 has also been playing as a distinctive transition momentum for driving Korea into its post catch-up stage with various derivatives more concurrently, by providing Korea with the critically significant means of retrieving and reusing the existing knowledge rather diffusely accumulated during its catch-up stage into a more relevant one for transition.