Readying a region: temporally exploring the development of an Australian regional quadruple helix

Abstract

Understanding how innovation drives regional development has important economic and social outcomes. Models such as Smart Specialisation and the quadruple helix are increasingly adopted given their sensitivity to place-based contexts. But although innovation processes are dynamic and facilitated by individuals' interactions, our understanding of how these connections are developed and sustained during helix collaboration development remains under-investigated. This research adopts an action research approach, focused on a regional Australian case study, to test a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework exploring key human-centred, micro-processes driving quadruple helix development: trust building; power relationships; regional readiness; and time and sphere centrality. The findings demonstrate the interactive nature of these processes, with trust-building facilitating the deployment of power bases by critical innovation agents which then foments regional readiness for change, subsequently driving the helix spheres towards overlap. These processes were also driven by changing sphere centrality and unique regional temporal structures. Practically, these outcomes offer insights into the human capital dynamics of regional helix collaborations, particularly for identifying the key individuals required to drive their development.

Teaching-practice as a critical bridge for narrowing the research-practice gap

“…The researcher circle or sphere, like a firm, is responsible for sharing in the creation. A fully functioning triple or quadruple helix (with the added sphere of community) sees complementary interactions between stakeholders leading to a temporal expansion and strengthening of shared components (Kriz, Bankins, & Molloy, 2018). In management education at present, the reverse seems to be happening.…”

“…The four cases described are customised to the ANU management school philosophy but are examples of initiatives increasingly offered by a range of Australian universities in programs encouraging more interactive theory-practice work integrated learning (WIL). The cases are supported by peer reviews and student feedback but for the purposes of this article the material is built on the diaries, memos, observations and reflective discussions of the academics involved (Kriz et al, 2018). Two of the authors have developed programs applying action learning and action research for more participatory approaches with Cases B, C and D offering examples closer to Tushman et al's (2007) executive and industry training workshops.…”

Encouraging and enabling action research in innovation management

“…A search for ‘action research’ and ‘innovation management’ in title, abstract and keywords in Scopus and Web of Science results in a total of only 24 peer‐reviewed articles (state 04.03.2020). This journal includes three articles under the guise of open innovation community engineering (Ebner et al, 2009), performance measuring of supplier collaboration (Le Dain et al, 2011) and regional IM (Kriz et al, 2018).…”

Quadruple helix as a network of relationships: creating value within a Swedish regional innovation system

“…These studies have focused on the actors, often from a triple helix perspective, that make a distinction between actors from (1) academia/universities, (2) government, and (3) industry (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000;Ranga and Etzkowitz 2013;Strand, Ivanova, and Leydesdorff 2016) or from a quadruple helix perspective that also includes a fourth helix of the users and civil society (H€ oglund and Linton 2018;Leydesdorff 2012;McAdam et al 2012). When it comes to the quadruple helix model, the inclusion of users and civil society has been highlighted as critical for the development of a RIS (Kriz, Bankins, and Molloy 2018).…”

“…Recent calls have suggested to research the quadruple helix from a micro perspective, and more specifically, its dynamic relationships, synergies, collaborations, coordinated environments, and value-creating activities (Cunningham, Menter, and O'Kane 2018;Edquist 2011;H€ oglund and Linton 2018;McAdam et al 2012). As Kriz, Bankins, and Molloy (2018) state, it is important to delve deeper into the micro aspects of relationships in the quadruple helix model to enhance our understanding of dynamic relationships within a quadruple helix.…”