Implementing the Triple Helix model in a non-Western context: an institutional logics perspective

Yuzhuo Cai

doi:10.1186/s40604-014-0001-2

Abstract

While there is a common belief among policymakers and academics around the world that Triple Helix relationships between university, industry and government provide optimal conditions for innovation, it should be noted that the Triple Helix concept has been developed from the experience of advanced economies in the West. There is a lack of theoretical considerations and empirical evidence on whether the Triple Helix model is applicable in non-Western contexts. Following the understanding that the evolution of an ideal Triple Helix model is facilitated by certain institutional logics in Western societies, this paper takes China as an example to examine how the institutional logics in China are different from those of the West and how the institutional logics in China would promote or impede the development of the Triple Helix model in China in light of an extensive review of the relevant literature and policy documents. The study suggests that to optimise the Chinese innovation policies, China needs on the one hand to adjust some elements of its institutional environment to facilitate the interactions between key innovation actors and on the other hand to be innovative in developing its own Triple Helix modes given the unique Chinese institutional environment which will persist in the foreseeable future.

Highlights

The model of Triple Helix interactions between university, industry and government (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1997, 1995), alongside its variations such as the Quadruple Helix (Carayannis and Campbell 2009) and Triple Helix twins (Etzkowitz and Zhou 2006), has been commonly used as a normative framework among researchers for understanding interactions between key actors in innovation systems
The Triple Helix model serves as a framework for understanding relationships and interactions between key actors in Chinese innovation systems, but has become salient in Chinese national industrial and science and technology policies
What remains unknown in the existing studies is how well the Triple Helix relationships have been developed and what affects the development of the Triple Helix interactions (Wang et al 2013)

Summary

Introduction

The model of Triple Helix interactions between university, industry and government (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1997, 1995), alongside its variations such as the Quadruple Helix (Carayannis and Campbell 2009) and Triple Helix twins (Etzkowitz and Zhou 2006), has been commonly used as a normative framework among researchers for understanding interactions between key actors in innovation systems. It has become a common strategy of many governments in developing innovation policies. The Triple Helix model can hardly provide appropriate rationales on which systematically structured criteria and indicators may be developed for researching, measuring and comparing different empirical cases (Mowery and Sampat 2004), especially when they are in different national and cultural contexts (Eun et al 2006)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion