The triple helix strategy for universities in developing countries: the experiences in Malaysia and Algeria

Abstract

This article addresses issues relating to the policy shift in developing countries aimed at making universities increasingly relevant to the socio-economic milieu by promoting the 'triple helix culture' as a sustainable basis for innovation and technological progress. The role of universities in creating, disseminating and sharing knowledge is highlighted. Using the experiences of Malaysia and Algeria, the article explores evidence to show the extent to which the triple helix system of relationships between university, industry and government could be expected to enhance the relevance of universities to developing countries as active agents of innovation and sustainable development.

Organizing practices of university, industry and government that facilitate (or impede) the transition to a hybrid triple helix model of innovation

“…First, our evidence is consistent with the observation of earlier studies on Malaysian national innovation system [18,47,62] and suggests that Malaysia is still in a transition process to achieving a full triple helix status. Second, our data suggest that while the three institutional spheres are committed to achieving a hybrid triple helix model, they frequently engaged in practices that impede their ability to organize their distributed capabilities and scarce resources to support their innovation initiatives.…”

“…A typical example is the establishment of USains Holdings, which is In a recent national innovation survey, only a fraction of firms reported having co-operation in innovation activities with either universities or government research institutions [46,80]. Like many other developing countries, our review of policy documents, innovation reports and the existing scholarly literature shows that Malaysia, is presently attempting to attain some form of the hybrid triple helix variant, but has not transitioned fully to the hybrid triple helix model of innovation [18,19,47,81]. The objective of Malaysia as suggested by AbdRazak and Saad [47] was to become the innovation hub of East Asia that could boast of university spin-off firms, R&D centres, and incubators all linked together through external global collaboration, research networks, and linkages where the knowledge produced could be applied to advanced science and technology problems facing both industrialized and developing countries.…”

“…Of relevance for this paper, developing countries have struggled to make the transition to a hybrid triple helix model by virtue of their lack of resources and weak institutions [37,45,46]. Recent work has increasingly focused on identifying antecedents and specific institutional factors that constrain the adoption of the triple helix model of innovation in developing countries [17][18][19]47,48]. This stream of studies identifies national innovation culture as a salient, but often, taken-for-granted factor that shapes the triple helix ambitions of developing countries.…”

“…This interest has also been extended to the exploration of the potential of triple helix in contribution to technology commercialization, new venture creation, and its consequences for policy initiatives in transition economies [16][17][18][19]. As this research suggest, triple helix plays a crucial role in integrating relevant institutions to boost national innovative activities and technology development [20].…”

The Triple Helix in the context of global change: dynamics and challenges

“…Different from discussions about national (Lundvall, 1988;Nelson, 1993) or regional systems of innovation (Cooke, 1992, Braczyk et al, 1998, the Triple Helix model enables us to consider empirically whether specific synergies among the three composing media have emerged at national and/or regional levels. With respect to the latter, in various countries the Triple Helix concept has been used as an operational strategy for regional development and to further the knowledge-based economy; for example, in Sweden (Jacob, 2006) or for comparing Malaysia with Algeria (Saad et al, 2008). In Brazil, the Triple Helix became a "movement" for generating incubators designed to promote enterprise-formation in the university context (Almeida, 2005).…”