The triple helix in developed countries: when knowledge meets innovation?

This paper deals with innovation viewed through the triple helix model as a milestone in the contemporary society of knowledge-based economies. Our goal is to empirically investigate the (in)efficient utilisation of academia, industry and government as three helices in order to boost innovations. Therefore, we construct a sample of 30 developed OECD countries with data covering the period from 2006 to 2018 and set up an input-oriented BCC data envelopment analysis that employs variables with non-negative average values over the entire period to calculate their efficiency scores. Our estimates from the radial models show that countries could reduce their inputs by a mean value of 11.9 per cent and keep their level of innovations in the triple helix model and by a mean of 5.8 per cent on average in the extended quintuple helix model. We find higher total inefficiencies in the non-radial models, which amount to 25.3 per cent on average in the triple helix model and 21.8 per cent on average in the quintuple helix model. The breakdown of the inefficiency score for different inputs reveals that countries have the largest potential for reducing CO₂ emissions and the least room to reduce the Education Index and Civil Society Participation.