Gravitating toward the quadruple helix: international connections for the enhancement of a regional innovation system in Northeast Italy

The majority of previous Regional Innovation System (RIS) studies generally provide a rather static overview of the roles of innovation-creating actors. This article explores a single RIS in Trentino in Italy. The case shows that the roles of three actors (i.e., the provincial government, academia/research centers, and firms) are vital in creating the RIS, and that the provincial-level government policy is important in supporting the innovation activities of regional research institutions and firms aimed at developing their international connections. The public-private research collaboration and international connections of these actors are the key determinants of the development of an advanced RIS, but have largely been ignored in the extant RIS literature. This article extends the existing RIS and Triple Helix research to an international dimension, highlighting the complementary role of international connections within the RIS, thus reflecting a shift toward Quadruple Helix.     

When institutional logics meet: Alignment and misalignment in collaboration between academia and practitioners

This paper explains the institutional logics of academia, and of practitioners within industry and government, as well as the alignment and misalignment that occurs when these actors collaborate. This is achieved by building on the theories on alignment and misalignment and institutional logics, whilst conducting an explorative case study of a circular economy cluster from the Tampere Region of Finland. This paper offers three main contributions: First, convergence and divergence of institutional logics by industry, government, and academic actors can lead to alignment and misalignment at three levels: actor-type, relationship, and system levels. Second, partial alignment and misalignment are found to be in-between modes of alignment, which challenges the idea that alignment and misalignment are dichotomous. Instead, alignment and misalignment should be seen as the two ends of a continuum. Third, alignment and misalignment are dynamic by nature, because institutional logics change and modify during collaboration. For practice, this paper gives advice on how collaboration between academia and practitioners can be advanced to achieve alignment and avoid misalignment.     

Innovation management techniques and tools: a review from theory and practice

Knowledge is considered to be an economic driver in today's economy. It has become a commodity, a resource that can be packed and transferred. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the scope, trends and major actors (firms, organizations, government, consultants, academia, etc.) in the development and use of methods to manage innovation in a knowledge-driven economy. The paper identifies the main innovation management techniques (IMTs) aiming at the improvement of firm competitiveness by means of knowledge management. It will specifically focus on those IMTs for which knowledge is a relevant part of the innovation process. The research study, based on a survey at the European level, concludes that a knowledge-driven economy affects the innovation process and approach. The traditional idea that innovation is based on research (technology-push theory) and interaction between firms and other actors has been replaced by the current social network theory of innovation, where knowledge plays a crucial role in fostering innovation. Simultaneously, organizations in both public and private sectors have launched initiatives to develop methodologies and tools to support business innovation management. Higher education establishments, business schools and consulting companies are developing innovative and adequate methodologies and tools, while public authorities are designing and setting up education and training schemes aimed at disseminating best practices among all kinds of businesses.     

The critical role of the institution-led market in the technological catch-up of emerging market enterprises: evidence from Chinese enterprises

Innovation scholars have, in the past, applied the concept of ‘windows of opportunity’ to study latecomer firms’ catch-up. Previous research treats this concept as three separate aspects, i.e., technological, institutional and market. The role of government was seen as being concerned only with institutional windows of opportunity. However, governments in emerging markets exert influence not only through traditional means of institutional support but, also, via market-driven mechanisms. The former refers to state procurement, resource provision, legislation, and administrative control, whereas the latter is concerned with demand creation, resource allocation, and the regulation of market orders. This multifaceted nature of government in promoting economic growth, guiding technological development, and influencing enterprise behavior remains under-researched. Yet, it plays a crucial role in the catch-up of emerging market enterprises. Therefore, based on innovation studies literature and an institution-based view of international business, the present research proposes a new construct, termed the institution-led market, with the aim to encapsulate the complex role of government in the catch-up of emerging market enterprises. The institution-led market is defined as a unique type of market that is well-timed and strategically created by the government and supported by institutional policies and resources. A large database of 259 Chinese firms in 37 industries was created and analyzed using a hierarchical logistic model to empirically test the relationship between the institution-led market and technological catch-up of emerging market enterprises. We demonstrate that the institution-led market positively affects the catch-up of emerging market enterprises; furthermore, it significantly moderates the effect of technological discontinuity on the catch-up. Finally, the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of the present research are discussed.     

Creating a bridge between university and industry in small European countries: the role of the Industrial Liaison Office

The frequent and intermittent need for new scientific knowledge has resulted in an increasing focus on links between industry and academic institutions. This has been particularly pronounced in the flows of knowledge between the two partners, which may lead to considerable diffusion of scientific and technical knowledge, particularly into the small firm sector. This development could be of particular benefit to smaller peripheral economies, which have demonstrated low levels of indigenous industrial technological development. As a result, universities could become increasingly important for local economic development in smaller countries on the periphery of Europe. However, a greater understanding is required of the pro-active role that the university itself can play in developing strong linkages with industry, particularly through mechanisms such as the Industrial Liaison Office (ILO). In particular, there needs to be an examination of the strategies and policies that are undertaken to increase the process of technology transfer from academia into local indigenous business within smaller countries. This paper will therefore examine the role that universities play in the regional economic development in two contrasting small countries of Europe, namely Sweden and Ireland. Drawing on interviews with key individuals in the processes of technology transfer between academia and industry (including ILOs), as well as secondary data, it will examine the general role and function of the industrial liaison office and how this has changed. It will also discuss the involvement of the university in different types of industrial links, the main opportunities and barriers to the development of links between university and industry, the benefits to the university from industrial links, and the perception of industry’s assessment of the relationship with universities. The research will provide valuable insight into the role of universities in developing innovation and entrepreneurship within the smaller and peripheral countries of Europe and will determine whether these universities are undertaking a pro-active role in encouraging the growth of innovative indigenous industry. This may have significant policy implications, especially with regard to the development of specific regional programmes to encourage academic-based entrepreneurship.     

A systematic literature review of university technology transfer from a quadruple helix perspective: toward a research agenda

Within recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of the University's role in economic development. This has resulted in University Technology Transfer (UTT) taking place within an increasingly complex network of regional stakeholders. This complexity has resulted in quadruple helix models where the triple helix model of academia, industry and regional government now includes societal based innovation users as a fourth helix. Despite this development, extant research is fragmented and lacks coherent frameworks and conceptualisations which fully depict the dynamic and evolving nature of UTT. Accordingly, this article reviews Mode 2 UTT from a quadruple helix perspective to identify key themes to develop a research agenda which reflects progression from a triple into a quadruple helix ecosystem.     

中国区域科技创新效率影响因素及提升路径研究

为了提高区域创新质量、改善区域创新环境、实现区域创新能力的提升,以中国27省为研究对象,构建了包含创新资源要素(知识基础与人力资本)、创新经济要素(地区经济水平与对外开放度)与创新政策要素(政府支持与政府竞争)3个维度、6个条件变量的创新要素群落,应用模糊定性比较分析法,探索了区域科技创新高绩效组态。研究发现：1)区域科技创新高效率路径归结为独立开放型和全面驱动型;2)对外开放、无政府间竞争是实现区域创新高效率的关键要素,区域科技高创新效率一定离不开高对外开放度;3)组态视角下政府支持对实现区域科技创新高效率的作用相对较低。研究成果在一定程度上丰富并扩展了区域科技创新效率的研究情境,对各地区开展区域创新活动具有借鉴意义。     

IMP thinking and IMM: Co-creating value for business marketing

We have extensive knowledge about the thematic development of the business-to-business marketing research. Much less is known, however, how major research contributions are created and disseminated, in brief, how the academic value is constructed between human and institutional actors. We address this issue by examining the relationship between IMM (Industrial Marketing Management journal) and the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) research community in the creation of B2B marketing theory from the early 1990s to present. We argue that the relationship between the IMP community and IMM, led by Peter LaPlaca over the past 23 years, offers an exceptional living laboratory for studying academic value creation in the B2B domain. Based on documents and citation data from the late 1980s to 2016 we will show how the parties created new academic knowledge and value for each other through intensive interaction and collaborative activities. In conclusion, we discuss the forms of coordination between IMM and IMP and provide an outlook for the future of this unique relationship.     

From citadels to clusters: the evolution of regional innovation policies in Australia

In Australia, the federal (central) and State (regional) governments share constitutional responsibility for aspects of science and innovation policy. In practice, the federal government has tended to overshadow the States both in funding and policy for research and innovation. It can be argued that we are now seeing the strong rebirth of regionalism (at least at the State level) as far as government support for science, technology and knowledge-based industries is concerned. The paper traces the growth of regional innovation policies through examples of initiatives from South Australia and other regions and examines the respective contributions of the State and federal governments. The character of State government support has evolved over the last 15 years, from sponsoring grand 'technology citadels' to today's strategies that take a more bottom-up approach to building intense innovation environments, local clusters and knowledge hubs. Some of these trends reflect the influence of the global knowledge economy on regional industries, while others (notably the relative decline of the federal government as an R&D performer) are peculiarities of the Australian innovation system. The outcome is a significant evolution in Australia's innovation system, one which parallels responses to globalisation in other countries and suggests a different – but not diminished – role for public sector innovation policy.     

The transformation of the mobile telecommunications industry in Pakistan: A developing country perspective

This paper offers a rare insight into the reality of the mobile telecommunications market transformation in Pakistan. Our analytical framework treats the mobile telecommunications market as a complex socio-technical system. Specifically, we define the telecommunications market as being composed of technology standards and three sets of social actors that include government institutions, network and service providers, and users. In the case of Pakistan, these social actors together determine the adoption of standards and services, and thus shape the trajectory of the market change. Our case study provides evidence that a pro-competition policy is imperative for mobile telecommunications development in developing countries, and an independent regulator is critical in promoting technological innovation.     

Beyond research method to research collaboration: Research co-production relationships with practitioners

The IMP 2018 Conference theme “From Business to Research and Back Again”, highlights the importance of academic research providing and effectively communicating findings that have value for non-academic communities. This paper argues that engaged and reciprocal research relationships with the business community can provide this value. The traditional character of a relationship between the academic researcher and the “researched” is one where researchers dictate the terms of the research, i.e. they choose what topics to consider and to try to get funding for, the modes of investigating, and ways findings are gathered, interpreted and communicated. Extending a recently-published book of readings about doing research WITH managers (Freytag & Young, 2018), the work of a number of the contributors is used as a basis for an argument that increased value is created and greater relevance is achieved by deeper forms of reciprocal research collaboration with business and government practitioners. The foundations of this kind of win-win research collaboration include epistemological compatibility, solid theoretical grounding, relevant research practices and systematic co-evaluation that are geared to specific collaborative settings. The resulting research can better advance not only practice-related knowledge but also the theoretical and empirical knowledge of business academia. This is illustrated with examples of several projects and programmes where research is effectively co-produced and benefits accrue to all.     

Policy discourse and data retention: The technology politics of surveillance in the United Kingdom

This article presents an analysis of UK legislation on the retention of communications data that was introduced in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It presents a review of the discourses surrounding this legislation in parliament, in the wider international policy arena, in business and in terms of technology. The review of these discourses demonstrates that, in understanding policies involving a significant technological component such as communications data retention, policy alternatives may be evaluated only with an appreciation of technological characteristics alongside the traditional concerns of legislators, civil society and the business community. While academia has developed many forms of analysis for political, international, and regulatory discourses, the same must be undertaken for technological discourse, i.e. the interactions between the policies in question, the actors, and the technologies. Developing forms of analysis for technological discourses will likely lead to further understanding of both the policy problem and the actors’ interests. The paper also shows how current institutions are slowly developing the necessary skills to incorporate the technological aspects of policy into political debate, and calls for a similar development for the law.     

Networked business model development for emerging technology-based services

This study examines the development of a networked business model for emerging technology-based services. Few studies explore the development and use of business models, and research on networked business models is particularly scarce. With observation and interview data from a network pilot of technology-based services the study presents the concept of a networked business model as a dynamic device in planning an emerging business in a net of actors. The findings identify phases of business net evolution when business opportunities are identified, created, and potentially exploited and recognize the role of entrepreneurial actors in the development.     

Roles for managing in mobile service development nets

This paper examines the roles for managing in business nets. The roles are studied by applying an initial conceptual framework built on network management research and role theory. The study empirically grounds the framework by using the case of a new mobile service development net. The article answers the question of what are the managerial action-based roles for managing in business nets. The empirical data of the study consists of fifteen interviews and a seven-month participant observation in a net that created and piloted a new mobile service directed at the spectators of a sports team. As a result of this study, an empirically grounded typology of twelve roles for managing in nets is presented. The roles are related to the changes in the net, the service development over time, and to the interpretations of the behaviours by the other actors in the net. Moreover, the study shows how external actors to the net can influence it.     

Technological communities and the diffusion of knowledge: a replication and validation

In a previous paper, we have argued that technological communities provide a useful level of analysis to examine information and knowledge flows among researchers. Based on an international survey of more than 700 scientists and engineers engaged in the development of neural network technology, the information and knowledge exchange patterns of two important subsets of that particular technological community, i.e. academic researchers and industrial researchers, were explored. The analyses demonstrated that industrial researchers, even if they are more commercially oriented than their colleagues in academia, recognise the professional community as a relevant locus of information and knowledge. An obvious methodological need exists, though, to generalize beyond the neural networks community. This is the aim of the present paper. Based on questionnaire surveys of researchers belonging to two other technological communities, the empirical results from the neural network community study are replicated and, to a large extent, validated.     

Eine soziologische Systemanalyse und sozio-ökonomisches Review der Soziotechnik Energiewende

The transition of the energy supply system in Germany from fossil-nuclear energy resources to renewable energies is a policy issue and defines a society technics. Society technics takes responsibility for an essential societal need and should be based on an agreement between all actors in all involved systems. According to a society-technics there are benefits for encouraging research, good governance for political support, public understanding of science (PUSH), and academic consultation for politics.Positive implementation will results in optimal coordination as all systems will function and all actors will work for synergy-effects. But a sociological system analyses works out many “dyssynergies”, handling the transition only as technological challenges and failing in underlying this transformation as a socio-technical system. Using renewable energies will not only change the technological system architecture but also modifying social systems and individual attitudes.     

Entrepreneurship, technology, and the university

In recent years, the small technology-based enterprise ('spin-off') has had a significant impact on regional economic development. As a source of new technology and entrepreneurs, the university has made an important contribution to the formation of new enterprises. This article focuses on the role of the university as an incubator organization and the special problems of academic entrepreneurs and their firms. Guidelines are given to improve the academic entrepreneur's corporate performance and suggestions are offered to enable the university to facilitate the entrepreneurship process. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the future prospects for academic entrepreneurship.     

我国区域技术创新体系构建的现状及其制约因素分析

我国许多地区的区域技术创新体系建设由于社会资本的缺乏导致科研和生产脱节、中小企业无能力开展技术创新、大学园区不能充分发挥技术创新带动作用。社会资本为区域技术创新体系的构建提供了新的研究方向,只有不断丰富社会资本,完善信任机制和互惠规范、增强组织间与个人间的信任程度、发育区域技术创新网络才能加快区域技术创新。因此,基于社会资本的区域技术创新体系的构建关键在于建立一种制度和网络体系,形成企业、大学科研机构、地方政府和中介机构之间的互惠、互动与合作。     

Social capital and its effect on networked firm innovation and competitiveness

International and local policymakers have repeatedly encouraged the development of clusters—a dense geographic concentration of interconnected businesses—to boost competitiveness at both the firm and regional levels, as well as foster innovation and new product development. Following this trend, many initiatives have started to provide services and infrastructure that can facilitate the establishment of formal and informal ties between firms, local institutions or research centres, as well as upgrade the stock of human and intellectual capital. In this scenario, the present study empirically documents the effects of an innovation network, established by a regional government institution, on the participating firms. In particular, firm-level primary data, derived from the participants of “Polo di Innovazione ICT - Abruzzo” in Italy, empirically support how the cognitive, structural and relational dimensions of the social capital developed within a cluster initiative affect the performance of participating firms, unveiling a negative moderation effect arising from firms' involvement in the cluster program.     

Collective action for market chain innovation in the Andes

The Papa Andina network employs collective action in two novel approaches for fostering market chain innovation. The participatory market chain approach (PMCA) and stakeholder platforms engage small potato producers together with market agents and agricultural service providers in group activities to identify common interests, share market knowledge and develop new business opportunities. These forms of collective action have generated commercial, technological and institutional innovations, and created new market niches for Andean native potatoes grown by poor farmers in remote highland areas. These innovations have benefited small farmers as well as other market chain actors. This paper describes Papa Andina’s experiences with collective action for market chain innovation. It then discusses the implications of these experiences for the understanding of collective action and the policy implications for research and development organizations.