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The Triple Helix Model The "triple helix" is a spiral model of innovation that captures multiple reciprocal relationships at different points in the process of knowledge capitalization. The first dimension of the triple helix model is internal transformation in each of the helices, such as the development of lateral ties among companies through strategic alliances or an assumption of an economic development mission by universities. The second is the influence of one helix upon another, for example, the role of the federal government in instituting an indirect industrial policy in the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. When the rules of the game for the disposition of intellectual property produced from government sponsored research were changed; technology transfer activities spread to a much broader range of universities, resulting in the emergence of an academic technology transfer profession. The third dimension is the creation of a new overlay of trilateral networks and organizations from the interaction among the three helices, formed for the purpose of coming up with new ideas and formats for high-tech development. The triple helix denotes the university-industry-government relationship as one of relatively equal, yet interdependent, institutional spheres which overlap and take the role of the other. There has been a movement from separate institutional spheres, which represent, at least in ideology, the US situation. There has also been a shift from the model of the state encompassing industry and academia, in its strongest form in the former Soviet Union but versions could also be found in Latin American and European countries. Bilateral relations between government and university, academia and industry and government and industry have expanded into triadic relationships among the spheres, especially at the regional level. Academic-industry-government relations are emerging from different institutional starting points in various parts of the world, but for the common purpose of stimulating knowledge-based economic development. Older economic development strategies, whether based primarily on the industrial sector as in the US or the governmental sector as in Latin America, are being supplemented, if not replaced, by knowledge-based economic development strategies, drawing upon resources from the three spheres. A new institutional configuration to promote innovation, a “triple helix” of university, industry and government is emerging in which the university displaces the military as a leading actor. The dynamic of society has changed from one of strong boundaries between separate institutional spheres and organizations to a more flexible overlapping system, with each taking the role of the other. The university is a firm founder through incubator facilities; industry is an educator through company universities and government is a venture capitalist through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and other programs (Etzkowitz, Gulbrandsen and Levitt, 2000). Government has also encouraged collaborative R&D among firms, universities and national laboratories to address issues of national competitiveness (Wessner, 1999). This is a different model of the relationship among the institutional spheres either than one in which the spheres are separate from each other and do not collaborate or one in which one sphere dominates the others. This picture, for example, depicts a model in which the state incorporates industry and the university. This would represent the Former Soviet Union and some Latin American countries in a previous era, when state owned industries were predominant. Figure I The model of overlapping spheres is also different from the model of institutional spheres as separate from each other, which, at least in theory is how the US is supposed to work. |
The Triple Helix Model
