INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS AND THE QUADRUPLE HELIX APPROACH IN THE ROMANIAN CONTEXT

Abstract

The study explores the collaboration between government, industry, higher education and societal based innovation ecosystem users (QH model) having as main purpose to critically explore the perceptions (focusing on the drivers of success and failure) of the above mentioned stakeholders, previously or currently involved in Quadruple Helix initiatives in the Romanian context. Generating innovations and achieving performance implies effective collaboration and stakeholders’ engagement. As a consequence, this study addresses the key positive and negative aspects of the stakeholders’ engagement in the QH collaboration in Romania, through a qualitative study. Both the literature review and the qualitative research acknowledged the need of in-depth investigations for the scientific research in order to establish and confirm models of effective collaborations for the innovation ecosystems, with a prioritization framework for each stakeholder in order to surpass possible emerging problems. Additionally, collaboration between actors must be improved. The contributions of the article are: (1) to improve the connection between HEI, business, government and the society (major actors within the QH approach); (2) to establish the real perception of QH stakeholders with focus on strengths, weaknesses and tensions emerging from their collaboration.