Triple Helix, Quadruple Helix and Quintuple Helix and How Do Knowledge, Innovation and the Environment Relate To Each Other?: A Proposed Framework for a Trans-disciplinary Analysis of Sustainable Development and Social Ecology

Abstract

This article develops an inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary framework of analysis that relates knowledge, innovation and the environment (natural environments) to each other. For that purpose the five-helix structure model of the Quintuple Helix is being introduced. The Triple Helix model, designed by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (2000), focuses on the relations of universities, industry and governments. The Quadruple Helix (Carayannis & Campbell, 2009) blends in the perspective of a media-based and culture-based public. The Quintuple Helix finally frames knowledge and innovation in the context of the environment (natural environments). Therefore, the Quintuple Helix can be interpreted as an approach in line with sustainable development and social ecology. “Eco-innovation” and “eco-entrepreneurship” should be processed in such a broader understanding of knowledge and innovation.