A Comparative Case Study on the Relationship Between Technology-Enabled Business Innovations and Government Regulations Using Wilson’s Politics of Regulation Model in South Korea

This study examines the relationship between technology-enabled business innovations (e.g. Uber) and government regulations by conducting a comparative analysis of three cases in Korea using Wilson’s regulatory politics model. Despite advancements in novel digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, not all technology-enabled business innovations successfully penetrate the market and society. This study examines three case studies in South Korea that demonstrated digital technology-enabled business innovations: ride-hailing, FinTech, and food delivery service platforms. Wilson’s politics of regulation model explains regulation creation or relaxation through political-economic interactions, emphasizing the distribution of costs and benefits of government regulations as perceived by the regulated. Using Wilson’s four political-economic types, this research comparatively analyzes three cases of technology-enabled business innovations, with a particular focus on changes in regulatory types over time. The study found that (1) deregulation processes around digital innovations are better explained by political-economic factors than technological superiority factors; (2) market entry of new technologies is challenging when existing industries bear the cost burden; (3) regulatory policies significantly impact new business market entries, especially in situations with sharp profit conflicts between old and new businesses; and (4) the political-economic process around digital innovation is dynamic, influenced by events, policy environment changes, and shifts in actors’ positions.