The dynamics of university-industry-government relationships in Nanoscience: investigating the Triple-Helix differences between Iran and Switzerland

ABSTRACT

This study aims to find the differences between national and international relationships in Iran and Switzerland’s Nanoscience research between 2008–2015. The results show significant differences some of which are attributed to the general dichotomy of developed-developing countries like stronger University-Industry-Government relations in Switzerland; but others are not, especially those pertaining to bilateral relations. In summary, the Government-Industry relations in Switzerland are generally closer in this field because the emerging characteristics of Nanoscience call for more state intervention, even in the context of developed countries. Greater Government-University relations in Iran can be explained by referring to the structure of national innovation system of this country. However, the no significant differences between University-Industry relations result needs further research so that it may in turn lead to improvements of the triple-helix calculations. Lastly, some theoretical implications and further research directions are suggested at the end.

KEYWORDS:

• Triple Helix
• Nanoscience
• Scientometrics
• university-industry-government relations
• innovation system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ebrahim Souzanchi Kashani is Assistant Professor at graduate school of management and economics, Sharif University of technology since 2013. He has been graduated from SPRU, University of Sussex in 2011 in the field of technology and innovation policy. His research is now focused on innovation and development in the context of developing countries.

Hamid Reza Zarghami is recently graduated from Iran’s university of science and technology in the filed of technology policy. His PhD research concentrated on Triple Helix in the field of nanotechnology in Iran in combination with TRIZ method for problem solving. He is no serving as an assistant professor in Sattari University.

ORCID

Ebrahim Souzanchi Kashani http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9075-038X

Notes

1. https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/378834-how-does-the-world-bank-classify-countries.

2. https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/new-country-classifications-2016.

3. Thanks to the exact attention of the referee of this paper. We use relations rather than interactions because co-authorships do not necessiate interactions. However, some papers used the term interactions in this regard.

4. According to the world bank database: https://data.worldbank.org/country/iran-islamic-rep and https://data.worldbank.org/country/switzerland.