Quadruple and quintuple innovation helix (Q2IH) framework

The quadruple along with the quintuple innovation helix frameworks extend and expand substantially the triple helix model of innovation economics as they introduce civil society and the environment as pillars and focal points of policy and practice. In particular, civil society emphasizes the role of bottom-up initiatives complementing top-down government, university and industry policies and practices, and the environment emphasizes the sustainability priorities and exigencies that need to inform and moderate top-down policies and practices as well as bottom-up initiatives. Within the quintuple helix, these represent the sine qua non of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The quintuple helix views the natural environments of society and the economy as drivers for knowledge production and innovation, thus defining opportunities for the knowledge society and knowledge economy. The quintuple helix can be described in terms of the models of knowledge that it extends, the five subsystems (helices) it incorporates, and the steps involved in the circulation of knowledge.

Definition

The quintuple helix model is based on the triple and quadruple helix models and adds as fifth helix the natural environment, “where the environment or the natural environments represent the fifth helix”: “The Quintuple Helix can be proposed as a framework for transdisciplinary (and interdisciplinary) analysis of sustainable development and social ecology”.

Models of knowledge

The quintuple helix can be seen as the logical extension of previous models of knowledge, specifically mode 1, mode 2, the triple helix, mode 3, and the quadruple helix. These are briefly summarized as:

Mode 1. Mode 1 “focuses on the traditional role of university research in an elderly ‘linear model of innovation’ understanding”, and success in mode 1 “is defined as a quality or excellence that is approved by hierarchically established peers”.

Mode 2. Mode 2 is characterized by the following five principles: (1) knowledge produced in the context of application; (2) transdisciplinarity; (3) heterogeneity and organizational diversity; (4) social accountability and reflexivity; (5) and quality control.

Triple Helix. The “Triple Helix overlay provides a model at the level of social structure for the explanation of mode 2 as an historically emerging structure for the production of scientific knowledge, and its relation to Mode 1,” and it is a “model of ‘trilateral networks and hybrid organizations’ of ‘university-industry-government relations’”.

Mode 3. “The concept of mode 3 is more inclined to emphasize the coexistence and coevolution of different knowledge and innovation modes. Mode 3 even accentuates such pluralism and diversity of knowledge and innovation modes as being necessary for advancing societies and economies. This pluralism supports the processes of a mutual cross-learning from the different knowledge modes”. Mode 3 “encourages interdisciplinary thinking and transdisciplinary application of interdisciplinary knowledge” and “allows and emphasizes the coexistence and coevolution of different knowledge and innovation paradigms’”.

Quadruple Helix. The quadruple helix model is based on the triple helix model and adds as the fourth helix the media-based and culture-based public and civil society. This “fourth helix associates with ‘media’, ‘creative industries’, ‘culture’, ‘values’, ‘lifestyles’, ‘art’, and perhaps also the notion of the “creative class””.

The five helices

Apart from active human agents, the most important constituent element of the quintuple helix is knowledge, which, through a circulation between societal subsystems, changes to innovation and know-how in a society and for the economy. The quintuple helix visualizes the collective interaction and exchange of this knowledge in a state by means of the following five subsystems (i.e., helices): (1) education system, (2) economic system, (3) natural environment, (4) media-based and culture-based public (also ‘civil society’), (5) and the political system. Each of the five helices has an asset at its disposal, with a societal and scientific relevance.

1) The education system defines itself in reference to academia, universities, higher education systems, and schools. In this helix, the necessary ‘human capital’ (e.g., students, teachers, scientists/ researchers, academic entrepreneurs, etc.) of a state is being formed by diffusion and research of knowledge.

2) The economic system consists of industry/industries, firms, services and banks. This helix concentrates and focuses the economic capital (e.g., entrepreneurship, machines, products, technology, money, etc.) of a state.

3) The natural environment subsystem is decisive for sustainable development and provides people with natural capital (e.g., resources, plants, variety of animals, etc.).

4) The media-based and culture-based public subsystem integrates and combines two forms of capital. This helix has, through the culture-based public (e.g., traditions, values, etc.), a social capital. In addition, the helix of media-based public (e.g., television, internet, newspapers, etc.) contains capital of information (e.g., news, communication, social networks).

5) The political system formulates the will, i.e., where the state is heading, thereby also defining, organizing, and administering the general conditions of the state. Therefore, this helix has political and legal capital (e.g., ideas, laws, plans, politicians, etc.).

Circulation of knowledge

The resource of knowledge is the most important ‘commodity’ in the quintuple helix, and the circulation of knowledge continually stimulates new knowledge. Consequently, all helices in the quintuple helix influence each other with knowledge in order to promote sustainability through new, advanced and pioneering innovations. The circulation of knowledge can be readily understood via the example of how injections of education in sustainable development circulate within the economy in five steps:

Step 1: When investments flow into the education helix to promote sustainable development, they create new impulses and suggestions for knowledge creation in the education system. Therefore, a larger output of innovations from science and research can be obtained. Simultaneously, teaching and training improve their effectiveness. The output that arises from human capital for sustainable development is then an input into the economic system helix.

Step 2: Through the input of new knowledge via human capital into the economic system helix, the value of the knowledge economy consequently increases. Through the enhancement of knowledge, important further production facilitates and develops opportunities for a sustainable, future-sensitive green economy, based on knowledge creation. This knowledge creation realizes in the economic system new types of jobs, new green products and new green services, together with new and decisive impulses for greener economic growth. In this subsystem, new values, like corporate social responsibility, are demanded, enabling and supporting a new output of know-how and innovations by the economic system into the natural environment helix.

Step 3: This new sustainability as an output of the economic system is a new input of knowledge in the natural environment helix. This new knowledge ‘communicates’ to nature and results in less exploitation, destruction, contamination, and wastefulness. The natural environment can, thus, regenerate itself and strengthen its natural capital, and humanity can also learn from nature via new knowledge creation. The goal of this helix is to live in balance with nature, to develop regenerative technologies, and to use available, finite resources sustainably. Here, natural science disciplines come into play, forming new green know-how. This know-how is then an output of the natural environment subsystem into the public helix.

Step 4: The output of the natural environment results in an input of new knowledge about nature and a greener lifestyle for the media-based and culture-based public helix. Here, the media-based public receives information capital, which spreads through the media information about a new green consciousness. This capital should provide incentives on how a green lifestyle can be implemented in a simple, affordable, and conscious way, i.e., knowledge creation. This knowledge creation promotes the social capital of the culture-based public, on which a society depends for sustainable development. This know-how output then serves as new input, about the wishes, needs, problems, or satisfaction of citizens, for the political system helix.

Step 5: The input of knowledge into the political system is the know-how from the media-based and culture-based public together with the collective knowledge from the three other subsystems of society. Important discussions on this new knowledge in the political systems are necessary impulses for knowledge creation. The goal of this knowledge creation is political and legal capital, making the quintuple helix model more effective and more sustainable. Consequently, there is an output of suggestions, sustainable investments, and objectives. This leads to the circulation of knowledge back into the education system.

Quintuple helix and policy making

The quintuple helix presents an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary framework of analysis that relates knowledge, innovation and the natural environment to each other. It can thereby inform environmentally conscious policy making. The quintuple helix has been applied to the 'green new deal';[21][22] the quality of democracy,[23][24] including in innovation systems;[25] international cooperation;[26] forest-based bioeconomies;[27] the Russian Arctic zone energy shelf;[28] regional ecosystems;[29] smart specialization and living labs;[30] and innovation democracy,[31] a quintuple-helix based extension of science diplomacy.