Innovation in urban freight transport: the Triple Helix model

There is an increasing awareness that urban freight transport contributes to urban problems like air pollution, noise pollution and
congestion which gives rise to much call for innovative urban freight measures and solutions. Throughout the past few decades,
a range of solutions to reduce the negative impact of urban freight transport have been researched, tested and implemented. Since
the start of this millennium, authors have been stating that successful measures and solutions require co-operation between the
different (commercial and public) stakeholders.
In the 1990’s, Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff proposed the model of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations for
explaining innovation in knowledge-based economies. The Triple Helix states that innovation happens at the intersection of three
institutional spaces and that there is an important role to be played by universities and knowledge institutions. In urban freight
transport, the idea that innovation is driven by commercial and public actors as well as researchers is not very common.
In this paper, we use the demonstrations of the European FP7 project Straightsol to confront the Triple Helix model with
innovation in urban freight transport. For each case, we explore the role of industry, government and knowledge institution and
the mutual dynamics and interactions and analyse how this contributed to innovation.

Jaar van publicatie:2016

Trefwoorden:triple helix, urban freight transport, city logistics

Auteurs:International

Toegankelijkheid:Open