Jordan Higher Education and Triple Helix Innovation Systems: Case Study Analysis and Lessons Learned

This paper explores innovation capacity building programs in Jordan while deliberating on the triple helix innovation linkages between universities, industry, and government. Using seven case studies this study investigates the extent to which these linkages are structured and contributes to the national innovation system. The analysis of these cases showed that despite the progress made in some cases, universities still lack structured and integrated linkages with industry, private sector had passive role in building linkages with academia, and government role have been under exploited. Therefore, it is no surprise that there exist much inefficiency in the overall Innovation systems. We argue that while the general economy depends on the universities to supply them with skilled human resources, some sectors in the economy require the university's role be defined in more innovative context. This call for pioneering knowledge and class technologies that needs to be exchanged, not only from university to industry but vice versa as well. In fact, the assumption that university has higher knowledge than industry is not always true especially in the case of developing countries. In many cases industry is ahead of the education systems. Thus, over time and across industrial sectors, the role of government policies and universities should be defined according to industrial landscape context. Therefore, the co-evolutionary process of university, industry and public policies according to the development stage is fundamental for leveraging the overall national innovation capacity.