South Korea has been slow to reap the benefits of the Internet of Things, as it has not developed the environment needed to develop the next generation of digital technology.

According to a report by Accenture, a global consulting firm, Korea was ranked No. 12 among 20 countries in preparations for the industrial adoption of the IoT, while the U.S., Switzerland and Nordic countries topped the list.

The rankings were based on the country’s National Absorptive Capacity that takes into account 55 indicators in sectors such as finance, education, technology and government readiness.

Korea earned 52.2 points out of 100, while the U.S. and Switzerland garnered 64 and 63.9 points, respectively.

“No one country has achieved an NAC score of 100. In other words, every country has work to do,” the report said.

It added that the index would help guide multinational companies looking for suitable locations in which to invest their production and service operations.

Accenture estimated that industrial adoption of the IoT would add $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030 and lift real gross domestic product by 1.0 percent by the same year for the 20 major economies studied.

“The potential economic benefits of the IoT may be massive, but they are by no means guaranteed,” the report said.

Accenture also conducted a survey on 1,400 executives, including 736 CEOs, from some of the world’s largest companies. The majority 84 percent believed their organizations had the capability to create new, service-based income streams from the IoT.

But 73 percent confessed that their companies had yet to make any concrete progress, while only 7 percent said they had developed a comprehensive strategy with investments to match.

The respondents may be still overconfident, the report said.

In a separate World Economic Forum Industrial Internet Impact Survey, 88 percent of more than 90 business leaders questioned said they still did not fully understand the underlying business models and long-term implications of the IoT.

“Business should play its part in identifying the deficiencies in education, capital, technology or institutional frameworks, and ensure that policy action focuses on a balance of factors that can amplify existed competitive advantages,” said the report.

“Government can support the IoT directly by bringing together the public, private and education sectors in the promotion of pilots that fast-track innovation while reducing investment risks.”

The Korean government announced a national plan in May to inject 150.8 billion won ($136.9 million) in the next six years to implement the IoT across industries.

By Lee Ji-yoon(jylee@heraldcorp.com)