Since Dr. Klaus Schwab (2015) – Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum – emphasized in his book “Fourth industrial revolution”, the difference between the previous industrial revolutions and the fourth industrial revolution. Previous industrial revolutions liberated humankind from animal power by enabling digital capabilities to billions of people – and the current fourth industrial revolution is characterized essentially by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital, and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Knowledge became the major driver of economic growth in the nowadays global economy (World Economic Forum, 2016). Therefore, comparative criteria of nations are now mainly derived from their ability to produce technical innovation based on applied knowledge rather than from natural resources or cheap labor, as it was in the past (World Bank, 2002). Thus, the implementation of policy agendas and the investment in resources to improve knowledge production processes is now a governmental priority for many countries. And while knowledge production is defined as a cluster of related research activities in universities, research centers, or firms, not only by generating publications and patents from researchers but also by applying this knowledge to the industry and labor market, several factors like economic condition, government policy, socio-cultural backgrounds, and educational development need to be propitious for such an endeavor (Farinha et al. 2014).
Knowledge and innovation are seen as one of the most important driving factors shaping economic growth and wealth, with universities being the main source of producing knowledge (World Economic Forum, 2016). A few decades ago, universities were recognized as institutions central to knowledge creation and provision of scientific and technological knowledge. Since then, the relationship between academia and industry has been investigated intensively (Etzkowitz 1998; Gibbons et al. 1994; Lee 1996). Therefore, firms started taking advantage of close collaborations with universities as the originator of knowledge and innovation to gain competitive advantages. And multiple models have been set up to characterize the process of diffusion of knowledge, innovations, and techniques (Acs et al. 2014). Scholars in innovation economics have argued whether technological development (technology push) or demand factors (market pull) constitute the main cause for technological innovation (Rennings, 2000). While these models only focus on distinct parts and aspects, Leydesdorff and Etzkowitz (1996) developed a model they called “Triple Helix” to capture the relationships and interrelations between the higher education sector (universities and research institutions), the private sector (new and established firms) and the public sector (government) more comprehensively.
Accordingly, policymakers are now assuming that the driving force of regional economic development during the ongoing fourth industrial revolution is the production and dissemination of socially organized knowledge. Therefore, they have been enhancing the role to be played by institutions that generate knowledge such as universities in the networks of relations among the regional key actors: Industry, and Government. By creating the Triple Helix Model, conceptualized by the three-dimensional vector space Helix of university- industry-government, to define, structure, and regulate innovation processes on a regional scale. And here, the university’s third mission is strategically put into practice by generating, using, applying, and exploiting the knowledge created and promoted by the university as well as other university capabilities in favor of the regional economic development.