Advancements on Helix Theory and the Stra.Tech.Man Approach: Towards a New Synthesis

This article aims to investigate whether the helix theory and the Stra.Tech.Man approach (strategy-technology-management synthesis) have prospects of analytical cross-fertilisation. After presenting the evolution of helix theory of innovation in three different stages and identifying some of its essential points and received criticisms, it analyses the constituents and theoretical implications of the Stra.Tech.Man approach. It finds that some points of the Stra.Tech.Man analysis, such as the 'physiology' of the firm, the 'competitiveness web' approach that places the dynamics of business innovation centrally, and the proposal of a micro-meso level policy of 'local development and innovation institutions' that diagnoses Stra.Tech.Man physiology, constitute enrichment and cross-fertilisation elements of the two theories. Overall, both theories attempt to provide a comprehensive theory of integrated socio-economic development, and their synthesis seems to offer new theoretical implications.