In the early nineties, Etzkowitz proposed the triple helix model to describe the relationship among university-industry-government within the innovation systems (Etzkowitz & Leydesforff, 1996). The proposal was based on the fact that a society of knowledge is one where the investigation centres, particularly those of the universities, interact with the industry and the government. Over the years, in developed countries, a new change took place: the appearance of a fourth helix, specifically, the participation of "civil society" in the innovation process (Quintero, 2014). This is about the consolidation of a society based on knowledge and with the ability to co-create development in its territory. Thus, there has been a lot of progress towards innovation as collective purpose, where civil society organizations stop being intermediaries in order to become providers of specialized services related to economic, social and environmental development. The paradigm of linear diffusion in technology has been widely criticized because it does not allow to understand the source, the nature nor the dynamics of most of the innovation processes in particular in the context of developing countries. (Rolling & Engel, 1992). Moreover, not enough attention is paid to the issues of distribution or equity which are related to innovation (Hall, Taylor, & Malins, 1997).
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