Knowledge-Based Innovation Systems and the Model of a Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations

The (neo-)evolutionary model of a Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations focuses on the overlay of expectations, communications, and interactions that potentially feed back on the institutional arrangements among the carrying agencies. From this perspective, the evolutionary perspective in economics can be complemented with the reflexive turn from sociology. The combination provides a richer understanding of how knowledge-based systems of innovation are shaped and reconstructed. The communicative capacities of the carrying agents become crucial to the system’s further development, whereas the institutional arrangements (e.g., national systems) can be expected to remain under reconstruction. The tension of the differentiation no longer needs to be resolved, since the network configurations are reproduced by means of translations among historically changing codes. Some methodological and epistemological implications for studying innovation systems are explicated.