Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Governance for sustainability: a triple-helix model

  • Special Feature: Original Article
  • People, Technology and Governance for Sustainability: The Contribution of Systems and Cyber-systemic Thinking
  • Published:
Sustainability Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the last decades much attention has been dedicated to the interpretation of relevant phenomena in the socio-economic field, highlighting the need of general frameworks of reference for the governance of sustainability and often recurring to the Elkington’s triple bottom line and the Etzkowitz’s triple-helix representations as reference models. In front of a massive scientific production that points out criteria and method of the model, the theory could seem less rich of applications and examples, especially in the field of the inquiry defined by sustainability. In this work, our aim is to provide a little contribution to cover this gap by (1) drawing a more general view from the triple bottom line; (2) highlighting a ‘triple-helix’ functioning in the triple bottom line as represented in the triple helix of sustainability; (3) providing an example, very actual and important, and some general reasoning related to the use of the model as a possible reference in the basic understanding of the complexity of governance for sustainability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Source: Barile and Saviano (2015), http://www.asvsa.org

Fig. 2

Source: Scalia et al. (2016)

Fig. 3–6

Source: Milani Comparetti A (2002)

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. “Does the flap of butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?”, this question is successfully aimed to emphasize the strong sensitivity of the Lorenz model to small perturbations on the initial state. Really, the model deals with meteorology (high-frequency phenomena, i.e., few days), not with climate (low-frequency phenomena, more than seven days), but it is able to exhibit a complex dynamic—a chaotic one with its “strange attractor”, well known to the scholars—despite that the sensitivity to small perturbations is only one of the requests for setting up chaos, whose rigorous characterization goes beyond this note.

References

  • Angelini A, Farioli F, Mattioli G, Scalia M (2015) Le due crisi: crisi del capitalismo e crisi ambientale. Una soluzione sostenibile? Parte I. Culture della sostenibilità, p 16

  • Angelini A, Farioli F, Mattioli G, Scalia M (2016) Le due crisi: crisi del capitalismo e crisi ambientale. Una soluzione sostenibile? Parte II. Culture della sostenibilità, p 17

  • Barile S, Saviano M (2013) An introduction to a value co-creation model, viability, syntropy and resonance in dyadic interaction. Syntropy 2:69–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Barile S, Saviano M (2017) Complexity and sustainability in management: insights from a systems perspective. In: Barile S, Pellicano M, Polese F (eds) Social dynamics in a systems perspective, New Economic Windows Book Series. Springer, pp 39–63

  • Barile S, Saviano M, Iandolo F, Calabrese M (2014) The viable systems approach and its contribution to the analysis of sustainable business behavior. Syst Res Behav Sci 31(6):683–695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barile S, Saviano M, Polese F, Caputo F (2015) T-shaped people for addressing the global challenge of sustainability. In: Gummesson E, Mele C, Polese F (eds) Service dominant logic, network and systems theory and service science: integrating three perspectives for a new service agenda, Giannini

  • Barile S, Lusch R, Reynoso J, Saviano M, Spohrer J (2016) Systems, Networks, and Eco-systems in Service Research. J Serv Manage 27(4):652–674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barile S, Saviano M, Iandolo F, Caputo F (2017). La dinamica della sostenibilità tra vortici e correnti: un modello a Tripla Elica In: Borgonovi E, Aiello G, Fellegara AM (eds) Sviluppo, sostenibilità e competitività delle aziende. Il contributo degli economisti aziendali. Collana AIDEA, Il Mulino, pp 61–82

    Google Scholar 

  • Carayannis EG, Barth TD, Campbell DF (2012) The Quintuple Helix innovation model: global warming as a challenge and driver for innovation. J Innov Entrep 1(1):1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton AMH, Radcliff NJ (1996) Sustainability. A systems approach. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Clean Energy Investment (2016) http://www.bloomberg.com/company/clean-energy-investment/. Accessed 14 Jan 2016

  • Elkington J (1997) Cannibals with forks: the triple bottom line of 21st century business, Capstone

  • Elkington J (2008) The triple bottom line. In: Russo VM (ed) Environmental management: readings and cases. SAGE, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkington J, Fennell S (1998) Can business leaders satisfy the triple bottom line? Vis Ethical Bus 1:34–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Espejo R (2014) Organizational transparency, inclusion and sustainability. In: Refereed proceedings of the business systems laboratory—2nd international symposium, January 23–24, 2014. Universitas Mercatorum, Rome

  • Espejo R (2015) Good social cybernetics is a must in policy processes. Kybernetes 44(6/7):874–890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espinosa A (2015) Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice. Kybernetes 44(6/7):955–969

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz H (1998) The triple helix as a model for innovation studies. Sci Public Policy 25(3):195–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzkowitz H, Leyesdorff L (2000) The dynamics of innovation: from National Systems and “Mode 2” to a Triple Helix of university–industry–government relations. Res Policy 29(2):109–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farioli F, Barile S, Saviano M, Iandolo F (2018) Re-reading sustainability through the Triple Helix model in the frame of a systems perspective. In: Marsden T (ed) The SAGE Handbook of Nature. SAGE, London, pp 10–37

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Golinelli GM, Barile S, Saviano M, Farioli F, Masaru Y (2015). Towards a common framework for knowledge co-creation: opportunities of collaboration between Service Science and Sustainability Science. In: Gummesson E, Mele C, Polese F (eds) Service dominant logic, network and systems theory and service science: integrating three perspectives for a new service agenda, Giannini

  • Goodwin RM (1967) A growth cycle. In: Feinstein CH (ed) Socialism, capitalism and economic growth. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Key World Energy Statistics (2015) International Energy Agency. http://www.iea.org

  • Komiyama H, Takeuchi K (2006) Sustainability science: building a new discipline. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Komiyama H, Takeuchi K, Shiroyama H, Mino T (2011) Sustainability science: a multidisciplinary approach. Sustainability Science Series, vol I. UNU Press, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz EN (1963) Deterministic nonperiodic flow. J Atmos Sci 20(2):130–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leydesdorff L, Etzkowitz H (2003) Can ‘the public’ be considered as a fourth helix in university-industry-government relations? Report on the Fourth Triple Helix Conference, 2002. Sci Public Policy 30(1):55–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lombardi P (2012) An advanced triple-helix network model for smart cities performance. In: Ercoskun OY (eds) Green and ecological technologies for urban planning: creating smart cities. IGI Global

  • Lyapunov A (1907) Problème général de la stabilité du mouvement. Annales de la faculté des sciences de Toulouse 9:203–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milani Comparetti A Introduzione ai sistemi dinamici (2009). http://copernico.dm.unipi.it/~milani/dinsisno. Accessed Dec 2017

  • National Research Council (2002) Abrupt climate change: inevitable surprises. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce DW, Atkinson GD, Dubourg WR (1994) The economics of sustainable development. Annu Rev Energy Environ 19:457–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poincaré H (1890) Sur le Problème des Trois Corps et les Équations de la Dynamique. Acta Math 13:1–271

    Google Scholar 

  • Renewables (2015) Global Status Report-REN 21

  • Saviano M (2015) Multi-actor co-creation systems for progressing toward sustainability: criticalities and challenges. In: 5th International conference on sustainability science (ICSS), 22–23 January, Tokyo

  • Saviano M (2016) Il valore culturale del patrimonio naturale nella promozione dello sviluppo sostenibile. Sinergie Ital J Manag 34(99):167–194

    Google Scholar 

  • Saviano M, Barile S, Spohrer J, Caputo F (2017a) A service research contribution to the global challenge of sustainability. J Serv Theory Pract 27(5):​951–976. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-10-2015-0228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saviano M, Nenci L, Caputo F (2017b) The financial gap for women in the MENA region: a systemic perspective. Gender Manag 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-07-2016-0138

  • Scalia M, Angelini A, Farioli F, Mattioli GF, Saviano M (2016) The chariots of Pharaoh at the red sea: the crises of capitalism and environment. A modest proposal towards sustainability. Culture della sostenibilità 1:3–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwaninger M (2015) Organizing for sustainability: a cybernetic concept for sustainable renewal. Kybernetes 44(6/7):935–954

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change (2006) http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100407172811/http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/stern _review_report.html. Accessed Dec 2017

  • Takeuchi K (2010) Rebuilding the relationship between people and nature: the Satoyama Initiative. Ecol Res 25(5):891–897

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2016) United Nations Treaty Collection

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRPS, Interuniversity Research Center for Sustainable Development, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Massimo Scalia

  2. Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Sergio Barile

  3. Department of Pharmacy, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084, Fisciano, SA, Italy

    Marialuisa Saviano

  4. IASS, Italian Association for Sustainability Science, Rome, Italy

    Marialuisa Saviano & Francesca Farioli

Authors
  1. Massimo Scalia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sergio Barile
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marialuisa Saviano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Francesca Farioli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marialuisa Saviano.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Handled by Osamu Saito, United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Japan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Scalia, M., Barile, S., Saviano, M. et al. Governance for sustainability: a triple-helix model. Sustain Sci 13, 1235–1244 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0567-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0567-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation