The Strategic implications of Triple Helix model for Knowledge-based Innovation in China

The strategic value of Triple Helix relations of university-government-industry (TH) in creating new knowledge infrastructure and developing the knowledge economy has been widely discussed within the existing innovation and knowledge economy literature. However current research and empirical evidence has been primarily focused on developed countries such as US, Japan and European countries. There has been little research undertaken on the implications of TH innovation model in developing countries, such as China, which has created economic legacy of maintaining 9% economic growth in the last three decades. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the strategic implications of Triple Helix (TH) innovation model based on university-government-industry relations for developing knowledge-based innovation in China. Based on the critical literature review, document analysis and interviews with academics and professional personnel involved in the TH development in China, the paper evaluates and explains the evolution of the Science & Technology innovation policy in China with particular attention paid on the nature and roles of each institutional actor in building up the knowledge economy. In so doing, a theoretical framework of the knowledge production system in China is established to provide a strategic guidance on the current development of knowledge-based innovation in China as well as identify the key factors that have an effect on the inter-institutional relations and evolutions of different knowledge functions within the Triple Helix innovation networks. We argue that both the formation and operation of knowledge production system in China on the one hand reflects the three dimensions within TH model: normative control (government), wealth generation (industry) and Novelty production (university and public research institutions), on the other hand highlights dynamic institutional interactions and transformational processes in creating the knowledge economy. Further investigations through empirical case studies are needed in order to develop a deep understanding on how specific social, economic and political factors shape the transformational changes within and between university, government and industry