Saad, Mahdi, Abdrazak & Datta: Mapping The Diverse Roles Of Universities In Supporting Innovation October 2010 Muhammed.Saad@uwe.ac.uk Page 1 of 19 TRIPLE HELIX CONFERENCE VIII, MADRID, SPAIN. OCTOBER-2010 Subtheme: S4-UNIVERSITY IN REGIONAL INNOVATION AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT MAPPING THE DIVERSE ROLES OF UNIVERSITIES IN SUPPORTING INNOVATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR ALGERIA, INDONESIA, MALAYSIA AND INDIA Mohammed Saad* 1 , Surya Mahdi*, Azley Abdrazak*, Surja Datta** *Bristol Business School, UWE Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS34 1QY. ** Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley Campus, Wheatley-Oxford, OX33 1 HX Final Submitted Version No part of the paper can be quoted without the consent of the authors. ABSTRACT This paper is aimed at investigating various opportunities as well as challenges facing universities from developing countries in their role of creation and exchange of knowledge as a basis of innovation. It intends to do so by investigating the links of these universities with regional and/or national systems of innovation and their position within the three stage evolutionary process (statist, laissez-faire and hybrid) of the Triple Helix system. These links will be highlighted and discussed in terms of proximity and impact on knowledge creation and exchange as well as on innovation. The paper argues that a healthy balance of diverse types of higher education institutions in a country might be necessary for better national innovation performance. Keywords : Triple Helix; National System of Innovation; Regional System of Innovation; Higher Education Institutions; Developing Countries 1. INTRODUCTION The main objective of this paper is to gain a better understanding on different opportunities opened to the universities 2 in developing countries as well as challenges facing them if they are to be expected to play more active roles in the creation and exchange of skills and knowledge as a basis of innovation. To conduct this investigation, the paper intends to build a theoretical framework linking these universities with regional and/or national systems of innovation and their position within the three stages evolutionary process (statist, laissez-faire, hybrid) of the triple helix system (Etzkowitz, 2003). This paper argues that the challenges and opportunities for the universities to contribute to the innovation system would be contingent upon the position of universities in the framework. These challenges and opportunities within this framework will be discussed in terms of proximity and impact of the universities on knowledge creation and exchange as well as on innovation system. A greater focus will be given on the role of institutional, geographical, cognitive and social proximity concepts in explaining the different opportunities and challenges facing the universities in their mission of supporting innovation. We use the case studies of four developing countries (India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Algeria) to illustrate our argument. 1 Address to which the correspondence should be addressed: Mohammed.Saad@uwe.ac.uk 2 In many countries, the term universities and higher education institutions are often used interchangeably. In this paper, similarly we are also going to use both term interchangeably.