Four South Korean companies have been named among the world’s 100 most innovative companies, Thomson Reuters said Tuesday.

The four companies are Cheil Industries Inc., LG Electronics Inc., LS Industrial Systems and Samsung Electronics Co. Only two countries in Asia, Korea and Japan, made the top 100.

“Innovation is a means of growth and prosperity for companies and nations seeking to overcome sluggish economies and achieve competitive advantage,” said David Brown, president of the IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters.

The list was announced with the launch of the Thomson Reuters 2011 Top 100 Global InnovatorSM program that analyzes patent data and related metrics in a new methodology to identify the organizations that lead the world in innovation activity, the company said.

A comparison of market data for the 2011 Top 100 Global Innovator companies shows they added 400,087 new jobs in 2010 over 2009, 3 percent more than the prior year and greater than the percentage increase in growth experienced by the entire S&P 500 for the same period.

“The jobs created by the Top 100 Global Innovator organizations are proof of the impact innovation can have on driving economic growth, a valuable point as first world nations struggle to identify pathways for future prosperity and emerging markets enter the global marketplace,” Brown said.

Forty percent of the firms on the list are from the U.S., 31 percent are from Asia, and 29 percent from Europe. Despite China’s lead in patent application filing volume, it is absent from the top 100 list as patent quality and global influence are important aspects of the methodology.

By Yang Sung-jin (insight@heraldcorp.com)