The Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix, . . ., and an N-tuple of Helices: Explanatory Models for Analyzing the Knowledge-based Economy?

TL;DR

This paper discusses the extension of the Triple Helix model to N-tuple helices for analyzing systemic innovation in the knowledge economy, emphasizing the dynamic interplay of integration and differentiation among functions.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for extending the Triple Helix model to N-tuple helices and demonstrates how this captures complex innovation dynamics.

Findings

The Triple Helix model can be extended to N-tuple helices.

Empirical evidence supports the need for more than three helices.

The model captures the tension between integration and differentiation in innovation systems.

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.