This volume examines the relationships among social ecology, innovation, sustainable development and economic growth. The Quintuple Helix innovation model focuses on the interactions among five key elements of society: academia, industry, government, culture, and the environment--with particular respect to harnessing knowledge to promote social, political, and economic development. The Quintuple Helix is a powerful theoretical and practical lens for analyzing and understanding such critical and complex ecological and socioeconomic issues as global warming and climate change and their implications for sustainability. The authors provide policy approaches and strategies to help create a balance among the often competing forces of environmental protection, innovation, entrepreneurship, and social and economic growth that will successfully benefit society and protect democratic values.

The Quadruple Innovation Helix concept is the synthesis of top-down policies and practices from Government, University and Industry balanced and shaped by bottom-up initiatives and actions by Civil Society. In addition, of significance is the complementary expansion and completion of the Quadruple Innovation Helix by the concept of the Quintuple Innovation Helix, to which an all-encompassing fifth dimension was added, namely, the Environment. This book expertly defines the impact of public policies and productive public expenditures on innovation and economic growth in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Economic growth is managed by the creation of differentiated productive units that interact with each other and complement each other in the production of continuous innovation. This book provides a theoretical model of economic growth to demonstrate the importance of governments in promoting innovation. It is a seminal read which scholars, governments, and NGOs will find greatly beneficial.

Developed and developing economies alike face increased resource scarcity and competitive rivalry. In this context, science and technology appear as an essential source of competitive and sustainable advantage at national and regional levels. However, the key determinant of their efficacy is the quality and quantity of entrepreneurship-enabled innovation that unlocks and captures the benefits of the science enterprise in the form of private, public or hybrid goods. Linking basic and applied research with the market, via technology transfer and commercialization mechanisms, including government-university-industry partnerships and capital investments, constitutes the essential trigger mechanism and driving force of sustainable competitive advantage and prosperity. In this volume, the authors define the terms and principles of knowledge creation, diffusion, and use, and establish a theoretical framework for their study. In particular, they focus on the “Quadruple Helix” model, through which government, academia, industry, and civil society are seen as key actors promoting a democratic approach to innovation through which strategy development and decision making are exposed to feedback from key stakeholders, resulting in socially accountable policies and practices.

A Triple Helix of university-industry-government interactions is the key to innovation in increasingly knowledge-based societies. As the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge moves from the periphery to the center of industrial production and governance, the concept of innovation, in product and process, is itself being transformed. In its place is a new sense of 'innovation in innovation' - the restructuring and enhancement of the organizational arrangements and incentives that foster innovation. This triple helix intersection of relatively independent institutional spheres generates hybrid organizations such as technology transfer offices in universities, firms, and government research labs and business and financial support institutions such as angel networks and venture capital for new technology-based firms that are increasingly developing around the world. The Triple Helix describes this new innovation model and assists students, researchers, and policymakers in addressing such questions as: How do we enhance the role of universities in regional economic and social development? How can governments, at all levels, encourage citizens to take an active role in promoting innovation in innovation and, conversely, how can citizens so encourage their governments? How can firms collaborate with each other and with universities and government to become more innovative? What are the key elements and challenges to reaching these goals?

This book aims to meet the needs of education and training in modern techniques of innovation and entrepreneurship, and focuses on the detailed presentation of successful business practices. As today's global economic landscape is changing rapidly, the ability of businesses to introduce new products and services to the market faster than their competitors is perhaps their most distinct competitive advantage. This becomes obvious by the significant market share that the most innovative companies gain while increasing profitability. Extensive research in this field has demonstrated that companies that are constantly innovating normally double their profits compared to others. Moreover, establishing successful practices and policies of innovation management, through which ideas evolve from conception through evaluation to implementation and commercialization, become the basis for economic growth at the firm, industry, national, regional, and global levels. Taking Greece as an example, this volume identifies systemic weaknesses in development of new products, risk capital, patenting, broadband penetration, lifelong training, investment in research on the part of firms, high-tech exports, and employment in medium-high-technology manufacturing that place the country at the bottom of the European Union in economic performance and threaten its potential to achieve sustainable growth. To address these weaknesses in Greece and similar countries around the world, the authors present a comprehensive overview of the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship, with particular respect to their relationships to knowledge, learning, and creativity. Drawing from a strong theoretical foundation, and illustrated through in-depth case studies and examples from both private and public sectors, the authors present a framework for innovation management that integrates research, education, practical application, and policy. Specific topics include technology transfer, intellectual property rights management, the practice of knowledge management intellectual capital investment, business incubators, and Cooperation Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).

This book discusses the importance of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems in supporting regional competitiveness. It also encourages academics, business professionals and policy-makers to rethink innovation ecosystems as drivers of regional competitiveness, demonstrating the complex interactions between regional economic and social actors, and their impact on regional competitiveness. Further, the book examines the role of entrepreneurship and innovation policies in different regions (e.g. lagging regions, rural regions, etc.), and describes critical success factors in multi-level technologies and innovation policies and strategies.

A workshop proceedings address questions that lead to a better understanding of the interaction between innovation and the environment and explored elements of "best practice" policies that can stimulate innovation for the environment and shift our development path towards sustainability.