The Relation between Bio-Industry Performance and Innovation Capacity—Focusing on the Korean Bio-Industry

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the bio-industry is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, it is necessary to respond to the changed environment after COVID-19 by analyzing the bio-industry situation before the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Korean bio-industry is a very important industry for Korea’s economic growth, so huge investments are being made in the development of bio-companies. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the effect of innovation capabilities on the performance of the Korean bio-industry. Korea’s bio-industry has been developing under the leadership of the government. Thus, Korea’s bio-companies need various forms of innovation to achieve sustainability through competitive advantage on their own. The objective of this research is to find the competitive advantage factors that improve the innovation ability of the Korean bio-industry. Therefore, the elements that increase a company’s innovation capability were studied in order to uncover competitive advantage factors that improve the Korean bio-industry’s innovation capability, and the effect on corporate performance was analyzed. Using samples from the ‘Korean Bio-industry Survey’, the current state of the Korean bio-industry was examined through a review of all bio-industry enterprises. In addition, each of the eight bio-industries was examined using Korea’s industrial classification system. As an analysis method, multiple regression analysis of SPSS 25 was performed to analyze how the six input factors have a complex effect on the output factor. This study discovered that R&D intensity, machine investment, and human resource characteristics all had an impact on the business performance of Korean biotech enterprises. In eight bio-sectors, elements affecting company success were defined differently. Therefore, through this study, Korean bio-companies must understand their own industrial characteristics, and develop factors that affect business performance through strategic operational management. In addition, based on the results of this study, companies should strengthen the innovation capabilities of the bio-industry to survive post-COVID-19, analyze changes in innovation capabilities, and promote sustainable growth by strengthening key innovation factors.