The Triple Helix model of university-government-industry interaction is a rather new concept in the tourism industry. It has not yet been extensively scrutinized, even though it is as relevant as in any other industry. It is only very recently that the tourism researchers have realized the role and the importance of the Triple Helix in the tourism sector and continuously stress the importance of further research.
It is suggested, that Triple Helix interaction can contribute to innovation through collaboration and knowledge sharing, which are two essential parts of innovation. However, cooperation between the companies and other actors is at times difficult, this especially as universities have only recently been deemed as collaborators, and their role in the Triple Helix is still not entirely clear to the tourism companies. This, however, is making knowledge sharing problematic, as universities are the ones who possess the new knowledge companies desperately need in order to develop. Innovation workshops between university students and/or companies could be one of the possible platforms for knowledge sharing, as they bring together different actors of the Triple Helix and improve communication between them. These workshops could potentially increase innovation in the region.
This thesis examines how interaction between different actors of the Triple Helix model affect innovation in the tourism industry, and how innovation workshops contribute to it by taking Aalborg University and tourism actors in Northern Jutland as an example. In addition to the central research question, the thesis looks into the role of innovation workshops in tourism firms’ innovation processes, and how universities and the private sector interact.
To scrutinize the topic described, qualitative research methods were used to understand this phenomenon from multiple perspectives. More precisely, this thesis examines the viewpoints of the Triple Helix actors and their stance on innovation, knowledge sharing, collaboration and innovation workshops. This study is based on interviews with different Triple Helix actors in Northern Jutland, and the views are presented to understand the phenomenon on regional level.
The study identifies challenges different actors face with collaboration and knowledge sharing, and suggestions that could potentially minimize these challenges, additionally explaining the correlation between innovation, the Triple Helix actors and innovation workshops.