Henry Etzkowitz

The dynamics of innovation: from national systems and "Mode" 2 to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations.

Abstract The Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations is compared with alternative models for explaining the current research system in its social contexts. Communications and negotiations between institutional partners generate an overlay that increasingly reorganizes the underlying arrangements. The institutional layer can be considered as the retention mechanism of a developing system. For example, the national organization of the system of innovation has historically been important in determining competition. Reorganizations across industrial sectors and nation states, however, are induced by new technologies (biotechnology, ICT). The consequent transformations can be analyzed in terms of (neo-)evolutionary mechanisms. University research may function increasingly as a locus in the “laboratory” of such knowledge-intensive network transitions.

Research groups as 'quasi-firms': the invention of the entrepreneurial university

Academic entrepreneurship arose from internal as well as external impetuses. The entrepreneurial university is a result of the working out of an “inner logic” of academic development that previously expanded the academic enterprise from a focus on teaching to research. The internal organization of the Research University consists of a series of research groups that have firm-like qualities, especially under conditions in which research funding is awarded on a competitive basis. Thus, the Research University shares homologous qualities with a start-up firm even before it directly engages in entrepreneurial activities.

The Triple Helix : University-Industry-Government Innovation in Action

1. The Triple Helix 2. The Entrepreneurial University 3. The Innovation State 4. The Triple Helix Firm 5. Counter-Cyclical Venture Capital 6. The Regional Innovation Environment 7. Incubation of Innovation 8. Triple Helix Landscape 9. Conclusion: The Endless Transition

Innovation in Innovation: The Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations

Innovation is increasingly based upon a “Triple Helix” of university-industry-government interactions. The increased importance of knowledge and the role of the university in incubation of technology-based firms has given it a more prominent place in the institutional firmament. The entrepreneurial university takes a proactive stance in putting knowledge to use and in broadening the input into the creation of academic knowledge. Thus it operates according to an interactive rather than a linear model of innovation. As firms raise their technological level, they move closer to an academic model, engaging in higher levels of training and in sharing of knowledge. Government acts as a public entrepreneur and venture capitalist in addition to its traditional regulatory role in setting the rules of the game. Moving beyond product development, innovation then becomes an endogenous process of “taking the role of the other”, encouraging hybridization among the institutional spheres.

The evolution of the entrepreneurial university

A second academic revolution, integrating a mission for economic and social development is transforming the traditional teaching and research university into an entrepreneurial university. The Triple Helix thesis postulates that the interaction among university-industry-government is the key to improving the conditions for innovation in a knowledge-based society. More than the development of new products in firms, innovation is the creation of new arrangements among the institutional spheres that foster the conditions for innovation. Invention of organisational innovations, new social arrangements and new channels for interaction becomes as important as the creation of physical devices in speeding the pace of innovation. This paper draws for data on interviews conducted by the author in the USA, Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Denmark.

Entrepreneurial scientists and entrepreneurial universities in American academic science.

There is a heightened and novel appreciation of the importance of basic academic research to industry, both in American universities and in private business firms. Universities, in this period of increased costs and static income from governmental and private patrons, are considering the possibilities of new sources of funds to come from patenting the discoveries made by scientists holding academic appointments, from the sale of knowledge gained by research done under contract with commercial firms, and from entry into partnership with private business enterprises. By contracting with industry to conduct research in particular areas and by establishing offices to explore the economic potentialities of the results of the research done by their academic staffs, university administrators are beginning to exercise some of the functions of research administrators in private business. Many individual scientists within the universities are responding very favourably to those possibilities; some go further to create their own firms to exploit for profit their own discoveries. Thorstein Veblens expectation, in the early twentieth century, that American universities would increasingly take on commercial characteristics, through the entrepreneurial activities of university presidents,1 has acquired a semblance of validity: university presidents and other administrative officials of universities have begun to consider in a very active way the acquisition of income for their universities by the performance of research and sale of the results to private enterprises through commercial agents. Opportunities for commercial utilisation of scientific research have been often available to scientists, but the traditional ethos of science did not permit them to erode the boundary between science and private, profitseeking business. What is new in the present situation is that many academic scientists no longer regard such constraints as necessary or right. Heretofore, in the wide gap between scientific discovery and application, business firms were expected to have their own industrial scientists conduct research and development which was an activity presumed to be inappropriate for academic scientists. In the more recent period, however, academic scientists have often been eager and willing to direct, or participate in, programmes of research and development, aiming at commercial application.

Incubation of incubators: innovation as a triple helix of university-industry-government networks

The shift of university-industry linkages from a linear to an interactive innovation model is visible especially in the history of the university business incubator. Transcending the production and dissemination of research, incubated knowledge increasingly lies behind new products and new firms. Incubators have developed technology and business ideas into an array of firms and to form research centers by fusing heterogeneous R&D entities from university, government and industry. Further transformation of university-industry linkages are in the parallel evolution of incubator from an isolated to a networked entity. As these developments are supported by changes in the regulatory environment and by government funding programs, this pairing becomes university-industry-government interactions. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The second academic revolution and the rise of entrepreneurial science

Entrepreneurial scientists and entrepreneurial universities are reshaping the academic landscape by transforming knowledge into intellectual property. Faculty members and graduate students are learning to assess the commercial as well as the intellectual potential of their research. During the past two decades, a broad range of universities, well beyond those with traditional ties to industry, have undertaken to mine their research resources for profit. As their interest in making money from their research resources grows, universities compete in a new arena.

Triple Helix systems: an analytical framework for innovation policy and practice in the Knowledge Society

This paper introduces the concept of Triple Helix systems as an analytical construct that synthesizes the key features of university–industry–government (Triple Helix) interactions into an ‘innovation system’ format, defined according to systems theory as a set of components, relationships and functions. Among the components of Triple Helix systems, a distinction is made between (a) R&D and non-R&D innovators; (b) ‘single-sphere’ and ‘multi-sphere’ (hybrid) institutions; and (c) individual and institutional innovators. The relationships between components are synthesized into five main types: technology transfer; collaboration and conflict moderation; collaborative leadership; substitution; and networking. The overall function of Triple Helix systems – knowledge and innovation generation, diffusion and use – is realized through a set of activities in the knowledge, innovation and consensus spaces. This perspective provides an explicit framework for the systemic interaction between Triple Helix actors that was previously lacking, and a more fine-grained view of the circulation of knowledge flows and resources within and among the spaces, helping to identify existing blockages or gaps. From a Triple Helix systems perspective, the articulation and the non-linear interactions between the spaces can generate new combinations of knowledge and resources that can advance innovation theory and practice, especially at the regional level.

The Future Location of Research and Technology Transfer

The triple helix model of university-industry-government relations is explicated for the transfer of technology. Drawing upon a broad range of international instances, the stages and phases through which the institutional spheres most relevant to innovation are drawn into a more productive relationship are discussed in comparison to alternative models.