The Balanced State of Application-oriented Public Research and Technology Organisations

Analytical tools that systematically take into account the contexts and complexities of innovations can provide valuable insights. Public research and technology organizations (PROs) are at the intersection of contextual complexities involving business, government, and academia. Hence, studying and strategically managing them call for specific methods. In the article, the Triple Helix (TH) viewpoints of business, government, and academia are used to study activities and processes of PROs. Building on theories of academic capitalism, resource dependency, and related strategic management research, a TH-specific analytical framework is proposed to assist in establishing a common language and structural construct for PRO strategic management. Using the framework, a secondary analysis of nineteen case studies from eleven European countries and Japan points to the main elements of the balanced TH regime PROs. In the case of these specific, historically embedded organizations and during their ‘endless transition’, attention is called to the strategic need for fit between the external environments and internal capabilities and the TH-related factors facilitating strategic congruence.