Triple Helix welcomes submissions to the article collection on Institutions, Intermediation and Triple Helix Relationships.
From in-between agents to brokers that bring together seekers and providers of goods, information, money, etc., the role of intermediaries has evolved around matching facilitators that shape, frame and provide identity to all parties in the market place. Some economists argue the need for intermediation is due to the imperfect nature of markets and everyday situations where the complete ('perfect') knowledge about providers and seekers (and about what they seek), is not available to everyone.
Intermediation transcends narrow economistic issues to also address the social and cultural processes through which traditional intermediaries such as venture capital firms, angel groups, technology transfer offices and incubators expand and hybridize their functions, moving beyond simple revenue generation to encompass such goals as job creation and regional development. The Triple Helix framework also accounts for the emergence of new intermediary formats from interactions among the helices such as the classic case of the venture capital firm, the contemporary accelerator and the design school. A “more the more” dynamic is hypothesized as Triple Helix interactions are stimulated by an open civil society.
The relationships within the Triple Helix involve the institutionalization of decision making, resource allocation, and regulated boundary spaces of information and knowledge ownership, transfer, and sharing. This call for papers solicits contributions that address the challenges of governance, innovation and intermediation in the Triple Helix model of entangled government–industry–university. We would like to receive contributions that address the role of institutions in the governance of innovation and the role of intermediary institutional actors that shape the industry-university landscape and facilitate interactions, such as funding bodies, regulatory agencies, or legal and management consultants. In particular, we welcome papers that review the challenges faced by the entrepreneurial universities and entrepreneurial governments and the alignment and misalignment of interests that occur throughout the process of innovation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge commercialization, or how institutional actors engage in shaping preferences and co-alignment of interests.
Potental topics include, but are not limited to:
- Intermediation, governance and orchestration of relationships in the context of:
- Civil society
- Innovation systems
- Knowledge transfer practices
- Public-private partnerships
- Stakeholder platforms
- Institutional intermediation
- Multi-level and network governance
- Technology mediated relationships
- Other modalities of government-university and industry interactions
- Brokerage, bridging and third party activities in the context of:
- University-industry engagement
- Government-industry lobbying, information exchange and policy implementation
- Self-regulation and normative activities by industry
- Stakeholder activism, representation and mediated dialogue
- Research funding
- R&D collaboration
- Skills and capabilities development
Participants are invited to address the intermediation theory and practice from a particular disciplinary perspective and/or a specific case of facilitation, intervention intermediation or orchestration of university-industry-government interactions. Contributions may focus especially, but not exclusively, on the following questions:
- Does the innovation process require intermediation and what intermediaries are ready to step-in?
- Who are the actors mediating in regional development projects and how do these actors mediate between infrastructures, nature, urban spaces, regulators, providers and consumers?
- How intermediaries govern in sociotechnical networks?
- What intermediations take place in urban development?
- What is the role of institutional intermediation in stakeholder engagement?
- What are the trade-offs in intermediation?
- Can transparency be achieved in intermediation, orchestration and brokerage?
- How are diplomacy and orchestration practiced within the Triple Helix model?
- How intermediaries deal with ‘conflict of interests’, and deliver good value for money?
Submission instructions
Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have carefully read the Instructions for Authors for Triple Helix. The complete manuscript should be submitted through the Triple Helix submission system. To ensure that you submit to the correct article collection please select the appropriate section in the drop-down menu upon submission. In addition, indicate within your cover letter that you wish your manuscript to be considered as part of the article collection on Institutions, Intermediation and Triple Helix Relationships. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review and accepted articles will be published within the journal as a collection.
Guest editors
Emanuela Todeva, University of Surrey, United Kingdom
Henry Etzkowitz, International Triple Helix Institute (ITHI), United States of America and Birkbeck College, United Kingdom
Mark Casson, University of Reading, United Kingdom
Submissions will also benefit from the usual advantages of open access publication:
- Rapid publication: Online submission, electronic peer review and production make the process of publishing your article simple and efficient
- High visibility and international readership in your field: Open access publication ensures high visibility and maximum exposure for your work - anyone with online access can read your article
- No space constraints: Publishing online means unlimited space for figures, extensive data and video footage
- Authors retain copyright, licensing the article under a Creative Commons license: articles can be freely redistributed and reused as long as the article is correctly attributed
For editorial enquiries please contact triplehelixjournal@springeropen.com
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