Henry Etzkowitz

Loet Leydesdorff

Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff (2000) further elaborated the Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations (cf. Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 1995; Lowe, 1982) into a model for studying knowledge-based economies. A series of workshops, conferences, and special issues of journals have developed under this title since 1996. In various countries, the Triple Helix concept has also been used as an operational strategy for regional development and to further the knowledge-based economy. This short review (4000 words) provides an update (in January 2012) of the further elaborations of various Triple Helix models (such as a neo-institutional versus neo-evolutionary version). The surplus of using different models is specified in terms of research strategies. Using Triple Helix indicators, one can evaluate to what extent an innovation system is nationally, regionally, or technologically integrated.

A Laboratory for Knowledge Based Economic Development

The Triple Helix -- University-Industry-Government Relations

Helen Lawton Smith

Understanding how economies change through the interactions with science and governance as different spheres of activity, requires either new conceptual tools or advances in existing ones. In this paper the evolution of the metaphor of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations is positioned within the context of global economic change, highlighting how these relations are both continuing and mutating or changing, and the conditions under which a Triple Helix might be seen to be unraveling in the face of pressures on each of the three helices - university-industry-government. The reciprocal dynamics of innovation both in the Triple Helix thesis and in the global economy are systemically explored.

Dynamics and Challenges

The Triple Helix in the Context of Global Change

"Challenging, theoretically rich yet anchored in detailed empirical analysis, Loet Leydesdorff's exploration of the dynamics of the knowledge-economy is a major contribution to the field. Drawing on his expertise in science and technology studies, systems theory, and his internationally respected work on the 'triple helix', the book provides a radically new modelling and simulation of knowledge systems, capturing the articulation of structure, communication, and agency therein. This work will be of immense interest to both theorists of the knowledge-economy and practitioners in science policy." Andrew Webster Science & Technology Studies, University of York, UK ________________________________________ "This book is a ground-breaking collection of theory and techniques to help understand the internal dynamics of the modern knowledge-based economy, including issues such as stability, anticipation, and interactions amongst components. The combination of theory, measurement, and modelling gives the necessary power with which to address the complexity of modern networked social systems. Each on its own would partly illuminate an innovation system, but the combination sheds a far brighter light." Mike Thelwall Information Science, University of Wolverhampton, UK ________________________________________ "The sociologist Niklas Luhmann is considered one of the few social scientists possibly able to explain a decisive event once it has happened. In this book, Loet Leydesdorff answers the challenge to take Luhmann's analysis one step further by introducing anticipation into the theory. This book provides a fascinating exploration of the use of recursion and incursion to model social processes." Dirk Baecker Sociology, Universitat Witten/Herdecke, Germany ________________________________________ How can an economy based on something as volatile as knowledge be sustained? The urgency of improving our understanding of a knowledge-based economy provides the context and necessity of this study. In a previous study entitled A Sociological Theory of Communications: The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-based Society (2001) the author specified knowledge-based systems from a sociological perspective. In this book, he takes this theory one step further and demonstrates how the knowledge base of an economic system can be operationalized, both in terms of measurement and by providing simulation models."

Modeled, Measured, Simulated

The Knowledge-based Economy

Scientometrics--the quantitative study of scientific communication--challenges science and technology studies by demonstrating that organized knowledge production and control is amenable to measurement. First, the various dimensions of the empirical study of the sciences are clarified in a methodological analysis of theoretical traditions, including the sociology of scientific knowledge and neo-conventionalism in the philosophy of science. Second, the author argues why the mathematical theory of communication enables us to address crucial problems in science and technology studies, both on the qualitative side (e.g., the significance of a reconstruction) and on the quantitative side (e.g., the prediction of indicators). A comprehensive set of probabilistic entropy measures for studying complex developments in networks is elaborated. In the third part of the study, applications to S&T policy questions (e.g., the emergence of a European R&D system), to problems of (Bayesian) knowledge representations, and to the study of the sciences in terms of 'self-organizing' paradigms of scientific communication are provided. A discussion of directions for further research concludes the study.

Loet Leydesdorff

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