Global knowledge intensive enterprises and international technology transfer: emerging perspectives from a quadruple helix environment

Management scholars have widely acknowledged that we live a new era ofeconomic development, the so-called knowledge economy, where knowledge appears to bethe key foundation of value creation. During the recent years, it seems like knowledge hasbecome an all-embracing term that has come to stand for all the magic that goes on withincontemporary organizations, making them successful. Knowledge is then an immaterialand ubiquitous asset, embodied into individuals and embedded in their routines andartefacts. From this shadowy asset arises the main research purpose of several managementscholars: to ascertain the underlying organizational alchemy and the mystery of knowl-edge. In the managerial literature, when knowledge comes so deeply incorporated within afirm this has been usually reflected in a widely used concept: the knowledge-intensiveenterprise, a term that has received significant attention from scholars and researchers, nowexpressing a category of organizations within academic scientific research. Likewise, agrowing debate is emerging among policy makers and scholars in technology transferprocesses and tools for KIEs worldwide.