Abstract
Abstract The article links upgrading in the global value chains with the triple helix concept by focusing on business-academia collaborations that played a part in firms’ capacity to upgrade. Both are crucial for Central Eastern European countries, which face the need to restructure their economies and escape the “middle income trap”. The article asks the following research question: how can public policy encourage business-academia collaboration or other types of activities that contribute to firm upgrading? Data on four different case studies in Lithuania is analysed to answer this question. Results indicate that building endogenous technological capacity through a variety of business-university collaboration types is needed to attract higher-value foreign direct investment and facilitate intersectoral and functional global value chain upgrading. Furthermore, besides research and development, educating and training the labour force are likely to be even more poweful drivers for business-academia collaboration in Central and Eastern Europe.
Highlights
The transition towards a knowledge-based economy is expected to bring higher value-added employment, greater productivity and, lead to increased economic growth
The key research question is focused on the role of policy in facilitating knowledge-based growth – how can public policy encourage BA collaboration or other types of activities that contribute to firm upgrading in global value chains (GVC), and thereby foster innovation as well as escape the middle income trap? To answer this question, the article provides a comparative analysis of four case studies of successful innovative firms in Lithuania
This article aims to contribute to a broader research question, namely what role can public policy play in facilitating knowledge-based growth by encouraging BA collaborations or other types of activities that contribute to firm upgrading in GVCs? By reviewing the literature on GVC upgrading and triple helix collaboration, and investigating case studies of successful innovators in Lithuania we proposed a tentative framework of different GVC upgrading trajectories in relation to BA collaborations and relevant policies
Summary
The transition towards a knowledge-based economy is expected to bring higher value-added employment, greater productivity and, lead to increased economic growth. The so-called “high-road development” (Parrilli and Blažek 2018) may be pursued on the condition that firms and clusters focus on effective upgrading processes (Humphrey and Schmitz 2002), which are often made possible by several factors, including triple helix collaborations (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 2000). We perceive a firm’s upgrading within the GVC as a successful (or highly sought after) result that is conditioned by other factors, including government policy and firm-level factors, both of which further benefit from BA collaborations
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