The Mutual Information of University-Industry-Government Relations: An Indicator of the Triple Helix Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mutual information indicator to measure the dynamic interactions among university, industry, and government relations, revealing self-organizing behaviors in innovation systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel probabilistic entropy-based indicator for analyzing Triple Helix relations and applies it to global scientometric and webometric data.

Findings

Negative mutual information indicates self-organization.

The indicator varies across regions and data sources.

Self-organizing dynamics are observable in global innovation networks.

Abstract

University-industry-government relations provide a networked infrastructure for knowledge-based innovation systems. This infrastructure organizes the dynamic fluxes locally and the knowledge base remains emergent given these conditions. Whereas the relations between the institutions can be measured as variables, the interacting fluxes generate a probabilistic entropy. The mutual information among the three institutional dimensions provides us with an indicator of this entropy. When this indicator is negative, self-organization can be expected. The self-organizing dynamic may temporarily be stabilized in the overlay of communications among the carrying agencies. The various dynamics of Triple Helix relations at the global and national levels, in different databases, and in different regions of the world, are distinguished by applying this indicator to scientometric and webometric data.