Introduction: Considering the advancements in knowledge and technology across various fields, identifying trends for monitoring, developing, and converting them into national income and wealth is of special significance. In this regard, designing models, metrics, indices, and indicators with the capacity for monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment, trend analysis, and benchmarking at both national and, particularly, international levels can aid in achieving the aforementioned objectives. This study reviews the dimensions of the governance of South Korea's innovation system with the aim of extracting policy implications for steering a knowledge-based economy, thereby providing insights for the governance and policymaking of science, technology, and innovation with a view to realizing a knowledge-based economy.

Methodology: A systematic review methodology was employed as the principal research approach in this investigation. The central inquiry of this study was framed as follows: What constitutes the model of governance, policy formulation, and evaluation of innovation at the national level within South Korea? Moreover, what are the comparative implications for the Iranian context?

Findings: The outcome of the search yielded a total of 294 articles. The selected articles underwent several evaluative stages, leading to the exclusion of certain works due to their lack of alignment with the topic. Ultimately, 33 articles were chosen for an in-depth review. The filtering criteria encompassed: inclusion in reputable databases, the employment of reliable research methodologies and data, including high-quality content related to the topics of innovation governance, management, policy-making, and evaluation, as well as the absence of redundancy. Following the conceptual extraction process, the derived propositions were organized into three thematic categories: (a) the profile of the innovation system, (b) the principal characteristics of innovation policy, and (c) essential metrics for assessing and valuing innovation in South Korea. The findings indicate that the profile of the South Korean innovation system reveals a coherent and dynamic amalgamation of targeted governmental support policies, the efficacy of public research institutions, the higher education sector, and investments from the private sector, including the Chaebols. The country is actively enhancing the development of the innovation chain employing a commercialization approach facilitated by well-established innovation clusters and business networks, while also fervently pursuing international R&D collaborations to fortify its innovation system. Korea has executed a national innovation survey, placing significant emphasis on indicators oriented towards the impact of innovation.

Conclusion/ implication: Drawing upon the insights gleaned from the comparative analysis of South Korea’s innovation governance framework, recommendations were posited to enhance the institutional arrangements and governance structures of Iran’s innovation system.