A Triple Helix System for Knowledge-based Regional Development : From “ Spheres ” to “ Spaces ”

The Triple Helix model is increasingly relevant as a conceptual framework for regional development. Its capacity to describe the process as the result of the joint workings of the University, Industry and Government institutional spheres is expanded by introducing the novel concept of “Triple Helix Spaces”: Knowledge, Innovation and Consensus Spaces, which show the process and mechanisms by which the institutional spheres interact and co-evolve over time. The specific activities and formats of the Spaces provide guidelines for integrating endogenous and exogenous strategies. Our objective is to guide policy and practice at various stages in the creation and consolidation of knowledge-based regions. Introduction How can aspiring knowledge regions best learn from the world leaders? It is widely recognised that there are no universally-applicable measures for knowledge-based regional development, given widely different conditions in different world regions as, for example, emerging vs. declining industrial regions, urban vs. rural areas, etc. A general model based on a synthesis of contemporary best practice is often relied upon to provide general guidelines that are then more or less adapted to local realities in the attempt to create technopoles, innovative milieus, learning regions, clusters, industrial districts, science cities or regional innovation systems, etc. However, contemporary best practice may not always be the most productive starting point for an aspiring region, as it sets the bar very high and often ignores the early developmental phases that may be more relevant to an emerging region. Simply taking a mechanism that has been highly successful in one area and recreating it in another may not work. Rather than imitating features of late development stages in the life cycle of successful knowledge regions around the world, emerging regions may benefit more from adopting a model abstracted from the formative stages of such successful cases, and adapting it to the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of the region. This would help avoid the mistake of taking the end result of a knowledge-based growth process for the start and ignoring the longterm nature of endogenous development. An immanent Triple Helix-based approach to regional development originated in Boston during the Great Depression of the 1930s (Etzkowitz, 2002), and has since