Development of National Knowledge Systems to Support the Knowledge Economy Development in Low and Middle-Income Countries A literature review

Abstract

Executive Summary: This study reviews the current literature on national innovation system across Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) with a focus on sub Saharan Africa. The review primarily considers the application of the Triple Helix as an explanatory model, as well as to which extent do the three actors –university, industry and government - collaborate in supporting knowledge creation and use in these countries. By explicitly defining the core actors and their interdependent relationship in an innovation system, Triple Helix enables researchers to adopt different methods to measure the extent to which the knowledge flows and through which channel knowledge creation is realised. This literature review covers studies of Triple Helix innovation system in LMICs, primarily focusing on the country or regional level Triple Helix model after the year of 2000. In total, it includes: 1) 19 studies on Triple Helix model; 2) 16 studies touched at least one component (or relationship) among university, industry and government in LMICs; and 3) 1 study on National Research System. • Theory: Although the theory of Triple Helix model has been widely acknowledged in development countries, the nonlinear characteristic and dynamic nature of the Triple Helix give rise to several unanswered questions to LMICs. Comparing to developed economies, research on LMICs innovation systems, especially in sub-Sahara Africa, has lagged behind despite this concept has increasingly drawn attention from development researchers and policy makers. Implications and findings drawn from developed countries become questionable when applying onto the LMICs context because of different local conditions, changing internal and external environment and levels of development. • Empirical evidence and methodologies: the current research remains descriptive and mainly focuses on the existing national/regional innovation system. Both scale and scope in the context LMICs are limited. It is necessary to find out whether these factors are applicable to low-income economies. More attention should be placed on the enablers and barriers such as funding, infrastructure and the absorptive capacity of the system. • Application of Triple Helix in LMICs: In all, the application of Triple Helix model in LMICs is limited. It is still vague on the policy level how ‘knowledge economy’ can be achieved via applying a Triple Helix model in LMICs. Comprehensive evaluations on Triple Helix application in LMICs are to be explored in future studies. iv