Trend Analysis on Korea’s National R&D in Logistics

Abstract

Recently, the scale and importance of the logistics industry has been increasing as e-commerce has become active worldwide and with the proliferation of cross-border logistics. In particular, Industry 4.0 is modifying all industries. Moreover, the logistics paradigm is rapidly changing to Logistics 4.0, in which fourth industrial revolution technologies such as IoT (Internet of things), AI (Artificial tntelligence), big data, and cloud computing are integrated into logistics systems, thus leading to hyper-intelligence and hyperconnection. Additionally, unmanned logistics has been realized using robots and drones, and currently, no boundary exists between distribution and logistics businesses (BISTEP, 2019; Amid these changes, domestic logistics-related research has been conducted using several approaches, and techniques based on logistics technologies such as block chain and radio frequency identification (RFID) have been developed and applied most extensively In relation to the logistics industry, several studies have focused on efficiency analysis and economic analysis Numerous studies on the advancement of the logistics industry or logistics policies have also been conducted. However, research on investments in logistics research and development (R&D) and the possible directions for logistics R&D at the national level is insufficient. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the changes in national R&D trends related to logistics in the Republic of Korea. Accordingly, we conducted keyword network analysis using national R&D information provided by the National Science and Technology Information Service (NTIS). It was found that government expenditure in logistics R&D, which had been inactive for nearly 10 years since 2005, has rapidly increased since 2015. Moreover, technologies related to Logistics 4.0 are also being researched actively.