The Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix, …, and an N-Tuple of Helices: Explanatory Models for Analyzing the Knowledge-Based Economy?

By Loet Leydesdorff. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2010

710 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using the Triple Helix model of university–industry–government relations, one can measure the extent to which innovation has become systemic instead of assuming the existence of national (or regional) systems of innovations on a priori grounds. Systemness of innovation patterns, however, can be expected to remain in transition because of integrating and differentiating forces. Integration among the functions of wealth creation, knowledge production, and normative control takes place at the interfaces in organizations, while exchanges on the market, scholarly communication in knowledge production, and political discourse tend to differentiate globally. The neo-institutional and the neo-evolutionary versions of the Triple Helix model enable us to capture this tension reflexively. Empirical studies inform us whether more than three helices are needed for the explanation. The Triple Helix indicator can be extended algorithmically, for example, with local–global as a fourth dimension or, more generally, to an N-tuple of helices.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Political Science and International Relations, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e2b7ecf4850015cd102f67bc86a47d6440c6b267

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Citations in the corpus

Knowledge Transfer in University Quadruple Helix Ecosystems: An Absorptive Capacity Perspective (2016, positive): “…regional innovation strategy (RIS) does not guarantee that KT will take place, rather it attempts to create conducive conditions for KT and more radical innovation and commercialisation within the regional innovation ecosystem (Johnson et al., 2010; Carayannis et al., 2012; Leydesdorff, 2012).”
Quadruple Innovation Helix and Smart Specialization: Knowledge Production and National Competitiveness (2016, methodology): “As noted by Leydesdorff [Leydesdorff, 2012], Triple Helix is a dynamic model and alternates between a number of bilateral or trilateral coordination spheres (Figure 4).”
Quadruple Helix Systems and Symmetry: a Step Towards Helix Innovation System Classification (2014, positive): “As a reply, Leydesdorff (2012) suggested that even N-tuple helices can be envisioned, in order to gradually extend model in accordance to the needed explanatory power.”
Quadruple helix as a network of relationships: creating value within a Swedish regional innovation system (2019, background): “The quadruple helix model can be seen as an enhancement of the triple helix perspective that not only focuses on the actors from academia, government, and industry, but also recognizes the increased role played by civil society (Leydesdorff 2012).”
Mapping the field: a bibliometric analysis of the literature on university–industry collaborations (2017, background): “I collaborations that are examined (Leydesdorff 2012; Marcovich and Shinn 2011).”
Theorizing the Triple Helix model: Past, present, and future (2020, background): “Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff respectively take neo-institutional theory and neo-evolutional theory perspectives when understanding evolutionary mechanisms (Leydesdorff, 2012: 29–30).”
Value creation in the quadruple helix: a micro level conceptual model of principal investigators as value creators (2018, positive): “More recently, end users/customers have been identified as a further key stakeholder grouping within these innovation systems, leading to an extension of the triple helix framework towards a quadruple helix framework (Carayannis and Campbell, 2012; Leydesdorff, 2012).”
Leveraging complexity for ecosystemic innovation (2018, background): “It follows, therefore, that this pattern of collaboration may extend the three institutional pillars to a Quadruple Helix, a Quintuple Helix, and even N-tuple helices (Ahonen and Hämäläinen, 2012; Leydesdorff, 2012).”
Helix Trilogy: the Triple, Quadruple, and Quintuple Innovation Helices from a Theory, Policy, and Practice Set of Perspectives (2021, background): “Leydesdorff (2012) introduced his model of “N-Tuple of Helices.””