The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and "Mode 2" to a TripleHelix of university-industry-government relations

The Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations is compared wi th alternative models for explaining the current research system in its soc ial contexts. Communications and negotiations between institutional partner s generate an overlay that increasingly reorganizes the underlying arrangem ents. The institutional layer can be considered as the retention mechanism of a developing system. For example, the national organization of the syste m of innovation has historically been important in determining competition. Reorganizations across industrial sectors and nation states, however, are induced by new technologies (biotechnology, ICT). The consequent transforma tions can be analyzed in terms of (neo-)evolutionary mechanisms. University research may function increasingly as a locus in the "laboratory" of such knowledge-intensive network transitions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.