The Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix, …, and an N-Tuple of Helices: Explanatory Models for Analyzing the Knowledge-Based Economy?

Abstract

Using the Triple Helix model of university-industry-government relations, one can measure the extent to which innovation has become systemic instead of assuming the existence of national (or regional) systems of innovations on a priori grounds. Systemness of innovation patterns, however, can be expected to remain in transition because of integrating and differentiating forces. Integration among the functions of wealth creation, knowledge production, and normative control takes place at the interfaces in organizations, while exchanges on the market, scholarly communication in knowledge production, and political discourse tend to differentiate globally. The neo-institutional and the neo-evolutionary versions of the Triple Helix model enable us to capture this tension reflexively. Empirical studies inform us whether more than three helices are needed for the explanation. The Triple Helix indicator can be extended algorithmically, for example, with local-global as a fourth dimension or, more generally, to an N-tuple of helices.

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“…Other theoretical approaches present similar views, like national-, regional-, or sectorial innovation system theory and triple helix theory (Asheim & Isaksen, 2002;Asheim, Smith & Oughton, 2011;Balland, Boschma & Frenken, 2015;Cooke, 2001;Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000;Freeman, 1993;Leydesdorff, 2012;Lundvall, 2010). Common to all these approaches is the view that innovation is a distributed and interactive process, involving a multitude of actors embedded within dynamic systems that no individual member of the system controls alone.…”

Inclusive innovation in the bioeconomy: concepts and directions for research

“…The proposition for a quintuple helix approach may raise controversy (see Etzkowitz 1993;Edquist 2004;Carayannis and Campbell 2010;Leydesdorff 2012). 5 However, we think that the traditional 'triple' helix -focusing on firms, academia, and governmentpotentially overlooks the legitimizing role of civil society (e.g.…”

A Framework for the Assessment of Research and Its Impacts

“…The exponential increase and development of information availability and the development of the information society is leading us toward an open innovation society (see e.g. Chesbrough (2012))  based on a Quadruple Helix model (Leydesdorff, 2012) of bottom up interactive policy framework.…”