Digital Transformation of the Quadruple Helix: Technological Management Interrelations for Sustainable Innovation

Abstract

Since the 1990s, there is no discussion that information technologies (IT) and the Internet have transformed everything in its path and have reshaped our societies. In the same way, they have changed the economic models in the industrial, academic, and governmental sectors, redefining the behaviors, preferences, and ways of living of our communities. Today, the generation of knowledge is a fundamental part of the development of economies. Information about the application of new knowledge represents the digital transformation of the models and processes carrying out the management of technological and non-technological innovation. Innovation becomes the element that gives companies a competitive advantage, and scientific and technical research becomes the basis for wealth creation and economic development. Hence, when technology, people, and data are connected, transformative, and sustainable innovation occurs. Accelerating the digital transformation and the increase in ICTs investments in the various environments and sectors allows us to be in harmony with the full growth and development that occurs worldwide in the modern fourth industrial revolution. The present chapter aims to integrate the innovation accelerators of the four pillars of technologies of the third platform in the interrelations of technological management among the actors of the quadruple helix for digital transformation.

Introduction

The well-being development of societies is embraced by creativity and innovation exhibited within the industrial revolutions throughout history. According to Schwab (2017), the periods in which these industrial revolutions took place spanned from 1760 to 1840s with the first industrial revolution. The second revolution, known as the mass media revolution, elapsed between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The third revolution began in the 1960s, and it is generally known as the digital or computer revolution because the development of semiconductors catalyzed it, computing using mainframe servers (1960s), personal information (1970s and 1980s) and the Internet (1990s). We are at the dawn of a fourth industrial revolution. This revolution began at the beginning of this century and is based on the digital revolution. A more ubiquitous Internet characterizes it (generalized connectivity of low cost and high speed, primarily through wireless services with and without a license, making almost everything connectable), by mobile (by smaller and more powerful sensors that are increasingly cheaper), and by artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a result, from the late 1760s to the present days, the world has witnessed a five-fold rise in the global population, and a ten-fold increase in GDP (Skilton & Hovsepian, 2018).

The impulse of Industry 4.0 and the generalization of big data is leading to a transformation from current traditional and hybrid business models, to new hybrid and digital models in which STEM professions (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) will be increasingly in demand, professionals that will use digital entrepreneurship to reach a large number of potential clients with the ease of being able to adapt their products and services offered in the market to each clients’ needs (Colvin & Saiz-Álvarez, 2019). Within the relevant technological advances that have been integrated to give rise to and advance the fourth industrial revolution, information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a crucial role in development strategies in the field of governmental public policies, in the business environment in the industrial sector, and in the academic research environment, not only because of their growth potential, but also because of the favorable effect they have on other social areas and the overall competitiveness of the economy.

The expansion of the digital transformation (revolution) on a macroeconomic scale indicates the dawn of a new digital economy. In the digital economy, the digital transformation of the actors: government, industry, academia and civil society of the quadruple helix model (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000; Leydesdorff, 2012) will be measured by their ability to reach and overcome an entirely new set of demanding performance benchmarks and correspondences, enabled by the technologies of the third platform with its powerful “innovation accelerators” (IDC, 2017) and ICTs leadership to thrive in the digital ecosystem, based on Katz’s conceptualization (Katz, 2015).

Leadership has a crucial task in these technological innovation processes, as leaders force firms and organizations to change in hostile and competitive business environments. Leaders empower people to accomplish their goals in a continuously nurtured lifelong learning process, as lifelong learning and leadership are indispensable to each other. Changes accelerate in a learning-by-doing process, especially when firms succeed by applying to outsourcing as a strategy for growth (Saiz-Álvarez, 2008). Besides, when sustainable innovation links to additional services for products, firms enhance their product and service profitability (Jiang et al., 2019). This result is stronger on sustainable innovation when firms, organizations, and universities adopt a centralized leadership structure (Xu & Bai, 2019). In addition to one where the interrelations of technology management and innovation systems among the actors of the quadruple helix strive for digital transformation (Leydesdorff & Zawdie, 2010).

Digital Transformation can be widely applied to many principles and ideas. The efforts of the digital transformation of the “world leaders” will no longer be only projects or initiatives, but will be central wills for what is managed, produced, and administered, as well as how they operate collaboratively.

In the information technology (IT) market, 2013 was listed as the year of innovation. Thus, 2014 not only meant an extension of this concept, but it has been extended to a period where the process of digital transformation has been lived with higher intensity in the current decade. Based on the International Data Corporation´s estimates in technology to advance the efforts of digital transformation, global spending on IT products and services will continue to be led by financial services (banking, insurance, securities, and investment services) and by manufacturing industries (Tapper et al., 2018).

One of the strategies to increase the competitiveness of the local, regional, or national environment is through the interrelationships or interactions between the entities participating in the innovation processes. The national innovation system is defined as the productive social structure composed of policies, strategies, programs, and provisions that promote a collaborative culture among companies, consumers, educational institutions, and organizations to obtain technological results (Bruneel et al., 2010; Ioppolo et al., 2016).

The quadruple helix model describes the evolution in the interaction between its main actors, government, industry, academia, and civil society. The links between the actors of the model are influenced by a series of elements that promote or inhibit interrelationships or correspondences. In the context of the technological integration, interest has arisen to discover and take advantage of the opportunity to technologically manage through the innovation accelerators of the third platform (IDC, 2017) the interrelationships or correspondences between the actors of the quadruple helix model (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000).

From a technological management perspective, the following research questioned is presented in this chapter: Is the digital transformation of the quadruple helix model established through technical management interrelations between the government, industry, academia, and civil society employing the innovation accelerators of the four pillars of technologies of the third platform?

This chapter aims to develop a documentary investigation by collecting the background and substantiating it through a descriptive research study. From the bibliographic sources, essential topics of the quadruple helix model and the digital transformation were reviewed individually to establish their relationship, and the dispersed elements of interest were rationally gathered to study them in their entirety. The general scenarios of the quadruple helix model were related to the innovation accelerators of the third platform, which were designated through technology management interrelation in the prevailing scenarios of the quadruple helix model.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0

During the several industrial revolutions that have occurred throughout history, technological, economic, and social transformation processes were presented where creativity and technological innovations took place. From the beginning of the twenty-first century and based on the Digital Revolution, the current Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 (term coined at the Hannover Fair, Germany, 2011) or Intelligent Industry or Cyber Industry is characterized by a more ubiquitous and mobile Internet, by smaller and more powerful sensors that are becoming cheaper, and by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The aim is to reach a large number of intelligent factories capable of greater adaptability to the needs and production processes, as well as to a more efficient allocation of resources (Bloem et al., 2014).

The digital technologies that in their core have hardware for computing, software, and networks are not new, but unlike the third industrial revolution, they are increasingly sophisticated and integrated and are transforming societies and the world economy. This is why professors Brynjolfsson and McAfee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology referred to this period as the second era of the machines by stating that the world is at a turning point in which the effect of these digital technologies will be manifested with full force through automation and the creation of unprecedented things (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2016).

At the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, general, physical, and biological systems are combined. Schwab on the fourth industrial revolution in the World Economic Forum in 2016 declared that one of the characteristics of this revolution is that it does not change what we do, but what we are. We are a composition of physical and biological systems with stimulations of environmental and digital systems that induce change.

Sustainability is hinged on innovation (Kusi-Sarpong et al., 2019). Thus, regulation is of fundamental importance throughout the innovation process. Institutional and regulatory settings determine the productive and commercial strategies of organizations and avoid dumping practices (social, economic, and ecological) that harm free competition, society, and nature. Also, the regulation grants legal certainty, which encourages the arrival of foreign capital and the implementation of sustainable innovation. As sustainable innovation is a synchronous process defined by co-construction and parallel association (Aka, 2019), stakeholders’ participation must be especially active, especially customers and society.

The disposition of the sectors of society to the development of technological and non-technological innovation represents a definitive cause of progress and well-being. Those responsible for making decisions in public policies and educational institutions, as well as the private sector, must do their part in pursuing innovation management. Besides, it is also essential that citizens perceive the various benefits and challenges in a reasonable period.

An Overview of the Quadruple Helix Model

In the triple helix, unlike other models, there is no reference book in which its foundations and concepts are exposed (Shinn, 2002), as its leading theorists, Loet Leydesdorff and Henry Etzkowitz have been developing this approach in several joint studies and various publications along with different authors. Being consistent with their ideas, both authors act as consultants and as academic staff of various organizations from different countries to design and undertake their innovation policies.

According to Etzkowitz (2003, 2008), the triple helix model has its origin in the entrepreneurial university that emerged in the USA where there is a long tradition of collaborations between academic and industrial environments, between the university and governmental agencies, and between the government and industries. Here the interrelation or correspondence between the sectors that are part of the model is manifested. The triple helix is defined as “a spiral model of innovation that captures multiple reciprocal relationships at different points in the process of knowledge capitalization” (Etzkowitz, 2002). It is a process of knowledge capitalization as well as an internal transformation in each of the helices, such as the “development of lateral ties among companies through strategic alliances or an assumption of an economic development mission by universities” (Etzkowitz, 2003).

The triple helix approach of Government-Industry-Academia relations can be seen as a sociological complement of economic models in the studies of innovation (Albert & Laberge, 2007). This model postulates that the interactions between these actors are the key to improving conditions for innovation in a knowledge-based society.

Innovation becomes the element that gives companies competitive advantages, and scientific and technological research becomes the basis for wealth creation and economic development. In the social sciences, models are developed to explain and account for innovation as the main element of a new type of economy, “knowledge-based economy,” based on the production, distribution, and use of knowledge and information, made possible by information and communications technology (ICT) and the process of globalization of markets and their relationships.

According to Leydesdorff (2006), the knowledge-based economy becomes the goal of most of the economic policies of post-industrialized countries, as is the case in the European Union with the commitments based on the Lisbon Summit of 2000. From those dates are considered the generation of knowledge as a fundamental part of the development of the economies of the countries.

To complement the knowledge-based economy, the “capitalization of knowledge” that coincides with the “cognitivization of capital,” refers to the creation of new forms of capital, which are created based on social interaction or intellectual activities, and are interchangeable (Etzkowitz, 2003). The contribution of Etzkowitz stands the opportunity to update through interrelations or correspondences of technological management of the digitalization of social interactions. Interrelations that will also positively impact both the intellectual capital of the stakeholders (interest groups), which creates a feedback effect that favors the creation of quadruple helix models (Saiz-Álvarez & Palma-Ruiz, 2019).

The Digital Transformation

The technological platforms that initiate the development of the digital transformation of the various sectors of society were gradually presented with specific technological advances. The first platform is believed to originate from 1950 to the present. The mainframe is shown with a large, powerful, and expensive computer, which performs all the calculation processes and is only accessed through reserved interfaces, from punch cards to keyboards and text screens (Bloem et al., 2014).

The second platform begins from 1980 to the present or from 1986 to 2010. It corresponds to the “client–server” architecture; it is the revolution of personal computers, versions of computers are released along with access to communications networks from places of work, education, and homes. It facilitated communication from more or less “dumb” terminals to servers located in traditional data processing centers. The Internet and the World Wide Web arise. In the technological sector, there is a process of escape from the second IT platform, very handmade, to the so-called third platform, fully industrialized.

The Chinese firm International Data Corporation (IDC) (www.idc.com) is one of the world´s leading providers of market intelligence, consulting, and conference services for information, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

IDC defends that the expansion of the digital transformation on a macroeconomic scale marks a new economy of digital transformation. The organizations of the economic sectors must enable digital transformation through the technologies of the third platform to create value and competitive advantages through new offers, new business models or actions, and new relationships. These objects will exist and would be attainable by organizations by using the technological tools of the third platform to innovate the decision-making process and expand the experiences gained.

The technologies of the third platform are fundamental and essential elements in a digital economic association that can evolve the market and successfully adapt to a new economy focused on digital transformation. They are technical and service concepts intertwined, and that, in one way or another, respond to the needs to make business, academic or public information available on any device, time, and place as the primary imperative. Figure 1 shows the model proposed by IDC for the digital transformation consolidated by the third platform.

Fig. 1

(Source IDC [2017])

Third platform and innovation accelerators for digital transformation

The six innovation accelerators support the four technology pillars of the third platform that drive digital transformation: Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Cognitive/Artificial Intelligence (AI), Next Generation Security, 3D Printing and Robotics.

Figure 2 shows the representation of the digital transformation of the quadruple helix model with technology management interrelations. It is a descriptive model that shows the interrelationships of technological management or correspondence between the Government, Industry, Academia, and Civil Society sectors with the innovation accelerators of the four technology pillars of the third platform.

Fig. 2

(Source The authors)

Digital transformation of the Quadruple Helix Model

Table 1 shows the four pillars of technology of the Third Platform that drive the six innovation accelerators. In each of the four pillars, the set of techniques that are gradually integrated into 5G technology are considered a fundamental part of its development and performance. Besides, the six innovation accelerators are further described in this section.

Table 1 Four pillars of technology of the third platform that drive the six innovation accelerators

Internet of Things (IoT)

It is a strategic innovation accelerator for organizations in various economic sectors. According to Rose et al. (2015), the term “Internet of Things” was first used in 1999 by Kevin Ashton to describe a system in which the objects of the physical world could be connected to the Internet through sensors. Ashton coined this term to illustrate the power of connecting radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that were used in corporate supply chains to count and track merchandise without the need for human intervention.

There is no single and universally accepted definition of the term IoT. Different meanings are used to describe or promote a particular vision of what IoT means and its most essential attributes. The Oxford Dictionary offers a concise definition that invokes the Internet as an element of IoT: “Interconnection through the Internet of computing devices integrated into everyday objects, which allows them to send and receive data.”

Key distribution and critical management control are necessary tools for securing applications in the context of IoT to assure flexible, scalable, and resilient communication tools to guarantee IoT security and performance (Nafi et al., 2020), especially in wearable devices, as they are the latest IoT trend (Bhushan & Agrawal, 2020). Rose et al. (2015) pointed out that IoT in general terms refers to the extension of network connectivity and the ability to compute objects, devices, sensors and elements that are not usually considered computers. Although IoT has many opportunities to foster digital transformation, many organizations now decide to work with external experts to advise them on the use of IoT as a strategic innovation accelerator. Regarding the security problems offered by IoT, a series of questions can be raised, the relevance of the correct answers has increased due to the vast deployment of devices being used.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR)

On the background of augmented, virtual and mixed reality, Piña Huesca (2018) highlighted the several “immersive technologies” that have been developed. A term that refers to those digital technologies in which the user plunges into an environment that can be real or fictitious at different levels through tools such as electronic devices, lenses, gloves, headphones and omnidirectional tapes, an outcome of electronic and IT advances.

Immersive technologies are then classified into three areas:

• (a) Virtual reality (VR): The term was first used in the article “The Ultimate Display” by Ivan Sutherland in 1965. It is a technology that involves a complete immersion of the user to a simulation where he can interact in a fictional environment and even manipulate objects. So, the user´s interaction with reality is low. This VR can be done through different devices such as lenses or visors, with the most prevalent sensory helmets.

• (b) Augmented Reality (AR): This term was coined in 1990 by Tom Caudell, a Boeing engineer. It refers to the technology that through the use of a mobile device allows adding digital information to the natural environment, so the interaction between the user and the elements of the environment is high. The most popular tools to make use of this technology are smartphones and tablets. Currently, this technology is in the process of expansive exploration and its applications with other devices, such as lenses that display increased information to the user.

• (c) Mixed Reality: It considers elements of both, VR and AR since a digital environment is projected on the real environment utilizing electronic devices, such as the lenses. Nowadays, it is in the phase of experimental evolution. The current dream of AR/VR is to combine the mobility and wireless capacity of a mobile headset with the power of a computer.

Current Virtual Reality Applications

• (a) Business Division: Virtual reality allows remote employees to meet in a 3D environment using social avatars. It offers the possibility of designing better products, selling them to customers in a more immersive way, and it is also an excellent tool to train staff more quickly and thoroughly.

• (b) Entertainment Division: A combined or mixed reality headset fuses VR with RA. It uses integrated depth sensors and space mapping technology to transform real objects into simulated ones, i.e., a living room into a battlefield.

Sectors in Which Virtual Reality Is Deployed with Intensity

• (a) Online sales: Through VR, it is possible to combine the convenience of online shopping with the experience of being in a store.

• (b) Real estate: Thanks to VR, it is possible to visit a property remotely regardless of its location.

• (c) Health sector: Virtual reality offers the possibility of rehearsing complex surgery operations and can also help treat psychological conditions.

• (d) Aerospace industry: Virtual reality is part of the pilots´ training through simulations.

The Future of Virtual Reality

With the arrival of VR comes a new way of seeing the world and involves the revolution of the senses. Technological giants are already tracing the future of VR due to its massive market potential. In 2016, the global augmented, and market size for VR was approximately 1.9 billion USD. In 2019, grew to 16.8 billion USD, and in 2020, it is expected to rise to 22.4 billion, based on Statista (Liu, 2018).

The various immersive technologies are other innovation accelerators that allow the beneficiary to immerse themselves in an environment that can be real or fictional (simulated). At different levels of the digital transformation, VR is being carried out or adopted in governmental, industrial, and academic sectors. There remain many areas of opportunity to study and further develop AR and VR equipment, device prediction, technology training, forecasting, and emerging commercial services, educational purposes, and application cases.

Cognitive Systems/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

According to KPMG International Cooperative (2018a), artificial intelligence is a general term; it encompasses all the technologies that allow a computer to perform tasks that require human intelligence, and that involves four specific capabilities:

• Gather information and structured and unstructured data like human perception.

• Understand and process information reasonably.

• Act accordingly after choosing the most viable answer.

• Learn autonomously and through feedback based on data.

Artificial Intelligence is currently used near to all sectors, including public and private organizations, and has a tremendous economic impact by optimizing the value of many new technologies.

Examples of Artificial Intelligence Application Areas

• (a) Consumption: Creation of customized products or services through “chatbots” that analyze customer preferences in social networks.

• (b) Manufacturing: Movement of heavy loads through exoskeletons with visual recognition and augmented reality.

• (c) Customer service: Machine learning systems to generate automatic improved answers, in the face of the most frequently asked questions from customers.

• (d) Human resources: Creating interactive stories autonomously to develop online courses and corporate training.

• (e) Marketing: Websites of online stores that change automatically to persuade undecided customers to make a purchase.

Other Artificial Intelligence Application Areas

The term “machine learning” does not refer to the complicated learning processes typical of human beings; it is merely an analogy since these algorithms are only able to evaluate results and, based on them, adjust response variables to optimize future outcomes.

Myths will continue to manifest (that AI will displace almost all jobs) and realities (AI will create 2.3 million jobs in 2020 globally, while 1.8 million will disappear) around the development and application of cognitive systems/AI in addition to the challenges and threats AI brings to change the culture by “reimagine old tasks and create new industries” them to engage in innovation (van der Meulen & Pettey, 2017). Gartner, Inc. predicts such AI integration into organizations by 70% to assist employees and increase productivity (Omale, 2019).

According to KPMG International Cooperative (2018b), away from any controversy, current AI can provide multiple benefits for a company, such as:

• (a) Cost-savings: According to some estimates, the cost of a robot is equivalent to one-third of that of a full-time hired human and does not require expensive training plans.

• (b) Consistency/permissibility: The implementation of AI can reduce accidents, violations of regulations, and corporate fraud.

• (c) Staff satisfaction: Eliminating repetitive and daily work routines can leave time to foster human creativity and innovation.

• (d) Productivity/Performance: The machines work 24/7 and perform tasks at superhuman speed.

• (e) Quality/Reliability: If the software is configured correctly, its deviation standards are set within permissible ranges, thus avoiding mistakes. Therefore, it eliminates human error and extensive supervision.

Next-Generation Security

Security is an increasingly important issue for all organizations. The various economic sectors can benefit from professional service consultants and cybersecurity providers who understand the technology and can advise on how to use it as an innovation accelerator for digital transformation. It is estimated that by 2020, a large percentage of organizations around the world will invest in “response retainers” (antivirus or firewalls) in incidents to better manage threats and security attacks (Brethenoux et al., 2018).

Data security is a recognition of the link or the direct link between the domain of the data and the ability to protect them. The constant evolution of fraud and identity theft/intellectual property persistently affects a considerable number of people, as well as public and private organizations. Thematic areas of security include the evolution of cryptography as the technology pillars of the third platform are advanced, such as cloud computing and large amounts of data/analytics. Also, the collection of massive amounts of content created by the user and the machines, which is increasingly turning organizations into intermediaries (brokers) of data.

Next-generation security also includes technologies on the verge of disruption of traditional data security models and the transformation of security solutions focused on existing data for both structured and unstructured content. As business data stores grow with the promise of analyzing and using data, it is advisable to include:

• Encryption technologies

• Data loss prevention (DLP)

• User Behavioral Analytics (UBA)

• Supervision and monitoring

• Symbolization (coding) and masking (encryption) of data.

Markets and Issues to Analyze as Innovation Accelerators

• Modern trends in data security (containerization), behavior analysis, cognitive analysis, data plotters, and business rights management.

• Data protection and cryptography (encryption of files and entire disks, key management, and tokenization.

• Security of data storage (prevention of data loss, business rights management, anti-fraud monitoring and remediation, and advanced threat detection and intelligence).

3D Printing

A 3D printer is a machine capable of replicating 3D designs, creating pieces or volumetric models from a computer-made design, downloaded from the Internet, or captured from a 3D scanner. 3D printing developed with the idea of converting 2D files into real or 3D prototypes. It has been commonly used in the prefabrication of parts or components in sectors such as architecture and industrial design. Currently, its use is being extended in the manufacture of all types of objects, models for emptying, complicated parts, food, medical prostheses (since 3D printing allows each manufactured piece to be adapted to the exact characteristics of each patient).

There are multiple commercial models:

• Laser sintering (SLS) involves the depositing of subtle layers of powdered materials (steel, aluminum, titanium) for a laser to fuse each layer with the previous one.

• Stereolithography (SL) involves a photosensitive resin cured with ultraviolet light beams.

• Compaction comprises a mass of powder that is compacted by strata.

• Addition or injection of polymers in which the material itself is added in layers.

Current Uses of 3D Printing

• (a) Medicine: This field is one of the most advanced in terms of the use of 3D printers. In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in August 2015, the first drug that can be produced by 3D printing. The medicine is called Spritam and is used to treat epilepsy. 3D printing of medications can allow specialists to prescribe more precise doses, adjusted to the patient´s needs (Kite-Powell, 2016). Additionally, there are 3D printers that can create prostheses, transplants, organs, and many other applications, even the creation of skin for burned people, as made by the CIEMAT Biomedical Engineering Mixed Unit, one of the leading research centers on biomedicine in Spain.

• (b) Automotive industry: Design of vehicles, specifically in the prototype design phase, to save costs.

• (c) Aerospace industry: Both the USA space agency (NASA) and the European space agency (ESA or Spacex) are working on the use of 3D printers in space that allow them to create components and tools on-demand, which can be printed when needed, saving on space and weight, by carrying only the impression material, avoiding wasting valuable capacities on objects or tools that may not be used or that once used can be re-melted to create other purposes.

• (d) Education: Games for teaching and for learning mathematical concepts for blind or visually impaired students. Also for class gamification (e.g., Kahoot!, Trivinet) and educational cooperation (e.g., G Suite for Education).

• (e) Robotic industry: Countless applications are being found to use 3D printing as its development progresses. For example, the case of a printer that designs almost any type of sneaker with different compounds and colors. Also, in robotics. At this respect, the Robot Institute of America (RIA) defines a robot as “a multifunctional and reprogrammable manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools or special devices through programmed and variable movements that allow various tasks to be carried out” (Freedman, 1996). The robotics learning proposal must contemplate the study of the different elements that make up a robot, and that can be considered as its subsystems (Lam, 2007). During the design, creation, or commissioning process, it is possible to learn robotics themes such as robot manipulation, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and mechatronics (Krotkov, 1996).

Kitts and Quinn (2004) affirm that several robots could be built, such as industrial, air, land, and submarine robots. In the period between 1999 and 2004, in the robot systems laboratory of the University of Santa Clara in Silicon Valley, interdisciplinary teams developed different types of robotics projects and the student groups were made up of young people of different levels, academic programs, and disciplines.

New developments in robotics will have the potential to alter the business or activity ecosystems granted to all economic sectors and will have a significant impact on the functions of IT within organizations. Robotics is an area that is aligned with the other innovation accelerators and can be combined to offer a privileged experience at the managerial or rector level. It is estimated that by 2020, approximately 60% of the robots will depend on cloud-based software to define new skills, artificial intelligence capabilities, and application programs (Brethenoux et al., 2018). Some of the applications of the robots are in medicine, the industrial sector, the military avant-garde, agriculture, education, space exploration, science and technology, the business environment and those that need to be developed in agreement new trends. As a result, the adoption of 3D printing has begun to break the mold of the various economic sectors.

Conclusions

The prospects for correspondence between the governmental, industrial, and academic sectors have been modified and will continue to be altered due to the digital transformation. The pace is accelerating, as is the scale of change and disruption that take place at the individual, organizational, and societal level at the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution.

A descriptive model of the digital transformation of the quadruple helix model with interrelations of technological management between the government, industry, and academia is proposed, integrating the six innovation accelerators of the four pillars of technologies of the third platform.

It is convenient to make a point that, from the third platform, all the four pillars of technologies and the six innovation accelerators can be interrelated and integrated to establish the application of technological management that is projected between the actors of the quadruple helix model.

Strategies focused on technological and non-technological tools that work must integrate the vital component of creativity, in addition to having disruptive and innovative thinking in a multidisciplinary profile. The objective to be fulfilled will be to innovate and reinvent the strategies in the linkage processes with the correspondence and interrelations of technological management between business, academia, and public policies. The expansion of digital transformation into macroeconomics establishes a new scale, the economy of digital transformation.