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Lee, Taejun
Professor
AI-Driven Public Governance, STIE(Science, Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship), Public Communication and Media, CCS(Cultural and Creative Sectors)
Professor Taejun (David) Lee has been a tenured Full Professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management since 2015, where he has been at the forefront of research on digital transformation, public governance innovation, and data-driven innovation ecosystems. Prior to joining KDI School, he served as an Assistant Professor at Bradley University in the United States (2010–2012) and at Kookmin University in Korea (2012–2015), where he developed his international research profile and policy research expertise.
Professor Lee’s research focuses on theoretically explaining how technological innovation—particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven systems—reconfigures organizations, governments, and innovation ecosystems, and on translating these insights into policy and strategic design. His recent work advances a novel theoretical framework that reconceptualizes organizations and innovation ecosystems as recursive decision systems, in which decision-making processes, data feedback, platform structures, and policy interactions co-evolve to produce path-dependent and self-reinforcing innovation trajectories.
His current research program is structured around three core themes.
First, he examines the reconfiguration of public governance through AI-driven decision infrastructures, redefining the administrative state and policy capacity in terms of decision capacity and algorithmic governance, and analyzing how uncertainty becomes embedded within organizational and policy processes.
Second, he develops a theory of recursive innovation ecosystems, explaining how innovation systems evolve through feedback mechanisms that integrate market validation, data feedback, intellectual property (IP) circulation, platform coordination, and policy interaction.
Third, he explores glocal strategies for cultural and creative industries and regional development, proposing multi-layered development models that integrate cultural city policies, regional innovation platforms, data-driven content industries, city branding, and cultural diplomacy. His work systematically articulates how regions can transform into globally connected innovation hubs grounded in local cultural assets and digital infrastructures.
Professor Lee is the founder and director of the Open Government & Innovation (OGI) Lab, through which he supports digital transformation and institutional innovation in central and local governments as well as public organizations. He has built extensive international collaboration networks with countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, and ASEAN member states, and works closely with global institutions such as the OECD, World Bank, United Nations, and European innovation agencies.
He has led or participated in over 80 government-funded policy research projects and has served as a policy advisor to a wide range of Korean government bodies, including the Office of the President, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission. In recognition of his contributions, he has received commendations from the Minister of the Interior and Safety and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Academically, he has published more than eighty scholarly articles in leading SSCI journals, including New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, International Journal of Information Management, Government Information Quarterly, European Journal of Political Research, Public Performance & Management Review, Organizational Dynamics, Journal of Consumer Affairs, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Individual Differences, among others, as well as in prominent domestic journals. In recent years, his research has increasingly shaped international academic discourse on AI-driven governance, recursive innovation ecosystems, the platform economy, and the reconfiguration of policy capacity.
His work advances an integrative theoretical program that bridges public governance, innovation studies, organizational theory, and platform economics. It is widely recognized as scholarship that simultaneously propels academic inquiry and informs policy practice, thereby exerting influence across both intellectual and institutional domains.
Professor Lee’s research focuses on theoretically explaining how technological innovation—particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and data-driven systems—reconfigures organizations, governments, and innovation ecosystems, and on translating these insights into policy and strategic design. His recent work advances a novel theoretical framework that reconceptualizes organizations and innovation ecosystems as recursive decision systems, in which decision-making processes, data feedback, platform structures, and policy interactions co-evolve to produce path-dependent and self-reinforcing innovation trajectories.
His current research program is structured around three core themes.
First, he examines the reconfiguration of public governance through AI-driven decision infrastructures, redefining the administrative state and policy capacity in terms of decision capacity and algorithmic governance, and analyzing how uncertainty becomes embedded within organizational and policy processes.
Second, he develops a theory of recursive innovation ecosystems, explaining how innovation systems evolve through feedback mechanisms that integrate market validation, data feedback, intellectual property (IP) circulation, platform coordination, and policy interaction.
Third, he explores glocal strategies for cultural and creative industries and regional development, proposing multi-layered development models that integrate cultural city policies, regional innovation platforms, data-driven content industries, city branding, and cultural diplomacy. His work systematically articulates how regions can transform into globally connected innovation hubs grounded in local cultural assets and digital infrastructures.
Professor Lee is the founder and director of the Open Government & Innovation (OGI) Lab, through which he supports digital transformation and institutional innovation in central and local governments as well as public organizations. He has built extensive international collaboration networks with countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, and ASEAN member states, and works closely with global institutions such as the OECD, World Bank, United Nations, and European innovation agencies.
He has led or participated in over 80 government-funded policy research projects and has served as a policy advisor to a wide range of Korean government bodies, including the Office of the President, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission. In recognition of his contributions, he has received commendations from the Minister of the Interior and Safety and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Academically, he has published more than eighty scholarly articles in leading SSCI journals, including New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, International Journal of Information Management, Government Information Quarterly, European Journal of Political Research, Public Performance & Management Review, Organizational Dynamics, Journal of Consumer Affairs, International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Journal of Services Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Individual Differences, among others, as well as in prominent domestic journals. In recent years, his research has increasingly shaped international academic discourse on AI-driven governance, recursive innovation ecosystems, the platform economy, and the reconfiguration of policy capacity.
His work advances an integrative theoretical program that bridges public governance, innovation studies, organizational theory, and platform economics. It is widely recognized as scholarship that simultaneously propels academic inquiry and informs policy practice, thereby exerting influence across both intellectual and institutional domains.