Measuring the Knowledge Base of an Economy in terms of Triple-Helix Relations

Can the knowledge base of an economy be measured? In this study, we combine the perspective of regional economics on the interrelationships among technology, organization, and territory with the triple-helix model, and offer the mutual information in three dimensions as an indicator of the configuration. When this probabilistic entropy is negative, the configuration reduces the uncertainty that prevails at the systems level. Data about more than a million Dutch companies are used for testing the indicator. The data contain postal codes (geography), sector codes (proxy for technology), and firm sizes in terms of number of employees (proxy for organization). The configurations are mapped at three levels: national (NUTS-1), provincial (NUTS-2), and regional (NUTS-3). The levels are cross-tabled with the knowledge-intensive sectors and services. The results suggest that medium-tech sectors contribute to the knowledge base of an economy more than high-tech ones. Knowledgeintensive services have an uncoupling effect, but less so at the high-tech end of these services. 1 corresponding author; Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) University of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, NL-1012 CX Amsterdam, Tel.: +31-20525 6598; fax: +31-20525 3681, [email protected]; http://www.leydesdorff.net . 2 Erasmus University Rotterdam – FBK, PO Box 1738, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam, [email protected] & MERIT Maastricht University. 3 Delft University of Technology, Economics of Innovation, Jaffalaan 5, 2628 BX Delft, the Netherlands, [email protected]