  This paper examines the changing nature of knowledge-based innovation systems
in light of the dynamic interconnections between the university, industry and
government. Industries have to assess in what way and to what extent they
decide to internalize R&D functions. Universities position themselves in
markets, both regionally and globally. Governments make informed trade-offs
between investments in industrial policies, S&T policies, andor delicate and
balanced interventions at the structural level. Such policies can be expected
to be successful insofar as one can anticipate andor follow trends according to
the dynamics of the new technologies in their different phases. The
evolutionary perspective in economics can be complemented with a turn towards
reflexivity in sociology in order to obtain a richer understanding of how the
overlay of communications in university-industry-government relations reshapes
the systems of innovations that are currently subjects of debate,
policy-making, and scientific study.
