Emergence of a triple helix of academia-industry-government relations in ICT R&D in developing countries: private, professional and public dimensions of China´s 3rd generation mobile communications system task force

A closer interaction among government, industry and academia, forming a triple helix, is playing an increasingly important role in S&T capacity. It is proving to be more successful than the previous bilateral relationships between academia and government, industry and government, and academia and industry. This sort of triple helix has evolved in an historical process, in which exchanges among the actors are based on a high degree of functional differentiation and are mainly of a collaborative nature. This paper focuses on the mapping of inter-relationships in the ICT research and development (R&D) in the Peoples Republic of China. In the empirical part of this paper, it reconsiders both of the formation and membership structure of China´s 3rd Generation Mobile Communications System Task Force (C3G). The findings facilitate our understanding of how the most important institutions and interest groups emerge and become integrated into the strategic technology alliance.