Even a few decades ago, the concepts of knowledge and capitalism seemed far from each other. Economists, who regarded land, capital, and labor as the factors of production or the main component to create wealth or competitiveness, nowadays are shifting their interest to knowledge. In the twenty‐first century, social development and competiveness depends increasingly on knowledge, so that most social institutions including countries, companies, even universities seek to have and produce more knowledge, competing with each other. In this regard, in The Capitalization of Knowledge, Riccardo Viale and Henry Etzkowiz (2010) compiled an interesting selection of chapters that describe the new approach of how knowledge is capitalized and the dynamics of knowledge producing parties.
This volume provides a comprehensive perspective of knowledge becoming capital goods, pointing out the characteristics of knowledge. Then it suggests a new approach to efficiently produce knowledge, a “Triple Helix” model. This book consists of two parts: how to capitalize knowledge and “Triple Helix” model in the knowledge economy. Each chapter focuses on general issues related to the main topic. The book includes contributions from several authors and it reveals some significant issues from the capitalization of knowledge. In addition, exploring the diverse process and field, readers who are interested in the dynamics of knowledge capitalization will gain a broader contextual and methodological perspective.
The book begins with an introductory chapter which discusses the concept of “Knowledge”. The author defines the meaning of “capitalization of knowledge” as it occurs when knowledge produces economical values. He classifies the meaning of knowledge to explain the path which comes to have capital attribute. Also he points out that the trait of knowledge creates the discordance when researchers from different fields try to communicate and cooperate, which for example can be hazardous for efficient knowledge production in a country. Along with it, the author provides a perspective of how to make those different knowledge production parties cooperate together, which is the most important issue these days. Chapter 2 focuses on “university patent”. The Bayh‐Dole Act in the 1980s led to university patent and it became an intriguing instrument which multiplied the university research outputs. However, the weakness of constraining the knowledge production inside universities brought about an alternative system called “university‐company cooperation”, and was suggested as a more persuasive and suitable system for innovation.
The next four chapters are structured to explain the capitalism of knowledge, and to show the importance and hardship of co‐producing knowledge. First, Chapter 3 examines venture capitalism as a new mechanism for knowledge production. The author states that the emergence of NASDAQ promoted knowledge to become a product. Though knowledge is far different from other products in that it has few reproduction cost, the concept of patent made it possible to become a product. However, there has been a negative view on patent since it disturbs more knowledge production. Chapter 4 suggests an adequate interruption of government as a way of preventing such inefficiency. This strengthens the idea of why the cooperation of government‐university‐industry is important. Chapters 5 and 6 give examples of representative industries: biological region and software industry, respectively. Although biological technology is a market‐driven knowledge industry which makes thousands of money, it is weak in terms of business manner. Here, the importance of government and partnership with companies through networking and clustering are again highlighted. The example of software industry in Chapter 6 also indicates the difficulty of communication between researchers from the public and private sector.
Now, readers will understand the reason behind the three main knowledge producing actors and how they cooperate with each other. The next chapters aim for introducing a possible effective model: “Triple Helix”. The concept of “Triple Helix” originated from the criticism of Mode 2 knowledge production, and was suggested by this book's editors Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff in 2000. Triple Helix explains the mechanism of knowledge developing through university, industry, and government networking. Traditionally, firm formation from universities seemed somewhat skeptical. However, university researchers under pressure of funding and other impetus have now broadened their views to the entrepreneurial science model.
Chapter 7 diagnoses such phenomena, and shows transformed industry‐university relation. Chapter 8 is about the role of government under such situation. Government can regulate the discordance between industry‐university co‐productions of knowledge through policy interventions. However, as discussed, each of the three actors also needs mediations. The boundary organization, suggested in Chapter 9, can take on that role. In addition, the concept of “Knowledge Economy” of Fritz Machlup is examined as a competing concept of Triple Helix in Chapter 10.
Finally, the application of Triple Helix model is examined in the last two chapters in the volume. The framework and theoretical background of Triple Helix are specified through the scientometrics method and data analysis. It reveals the effectiveness of Triple Helix structure. The data show that the more mutual information is shared, the more possibility a region would have a higher industry stage. This finding strengthens the communication and cooperation of knowledge production actors under the Triple Helix structure. Chapter 12 explores the characteristics of structure contributing knowledge production and diffusion. It is important in that it offers the theoretical and methodological framework to analyze function and performance.
A study such as this is impressive and yet, in some ways, there are more questions that remain to be answered. Further, I could not understand the whole flow of this book after reading it twice. The first impression after finishing this book was that the organization seemed rather unsystematic. Especially, the intention of Chapter 10 is still confusing. Besides, some of the terms used in each chapter were too abstract and not fully explained. Considering such, I thought what if this book might have explained the contents more easily? Then, it would be more helpful to spread the utility of Triple Helix concept for those who are studying this field, and especially for government officials who can benefit from the ideas discussed in this book.
Overall, this book contributes meaningfully to trigger interest in capitalization of knowledge and the possible contribution of Triple Helix model. Higher education leaders in the economist field and knowledge would appreciate this book. It is also significantly applicable to policymakers worldwide who are devoted to reforming national innovation systems. Though it is hard to understand without having a professional background in this area, the importance of knowledge cooperation production is adaptable in most countries which would soon or currently be in agony about finding the best way of refining its national innovation system.
While the book does not offer concrete recommendations on knowledge network integration mechanism, it provides optimistic points of view on creating more and useful knowledge through communication channels between knowledge producing actors and preventing risk inefficiency. I applaud the editors for compiling all the ongoing issues of innovation systems. Hopefully, in their next publication on capitalization of knowledge, the editors will consider more effective ways of to diffuse this innovation.
