Arne Isaksen

Location, agglomeration and innovation: Towards regional innovation systems in Norway?

Abstract The theoretical part of the article examines the concept of regional innovation systems against the background of modern theories of innovation. The view of interactive learning as a fundamental aspect of the innovation process provides the ground for an interactive innovation model, which is greatly facilitated by geographical proximity and territorial agglomeration. The empirical part analyzes geographical variations in innovation activity in Norwegian industry, as well as examining more thoroughly innovation performance in two industrial agglomerations in Norway. On the basis of the theoretical clarification and empirical analyses carried out, the article finally discuss how to design a regional innovation policy for three main area types in Norway.

Knowledge Intensive Business Services and Urban Industrial Development

This paper analyses the role of knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) as innovation agents for other firms and industries with empirical evidence from the capital region of Oslo, Norway. It focuses in particular on the role of two sectors (software industry and organisational consultants) in stimulating innovation and growth, showing that firms in the two KIBS sectors mainly provide products and services tailored to individual clients and have frequent face-to-face meetings, relationships that may stimulate innovation. Moreover, data reveal that Oslo firms are more frequent users of consultancy services than firms located outside urban areas, suggesting a gap between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’.

Nordic City Regions in the Creative Class Debate—Putting the Creative Class Thesis to a Test

The Nordic countries have a quite different urban structure and social systems than the USA. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden may then constitute a critical test of the empirical reach of Richard Floridas much cited creative class thesis beyond its empirical basis in the USA. This paper employs comparative statistics to examine the importance of the quality of place in attracting members of the creative class to Nordic city regions, and it analyses the role of the creative class for regional economic development. Floridas original study focused only on city regions with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Our statistical analyses mainly support Floridas results with regard to these larger Nordic city regions. The paper, however, also analyses smaller city regions, which are important in the Nordic urban structure. The findings are clearly less supportive for these smaller regions, which mean that the original creative class approach has to be considerably refined when used in the Nordic context.

Knowledge-based Clusters and Urban Location: The Clustering of Software Consultancy in Oslo

The paper examines the reasons for the clustering of Norwegian software firms in Oslo. The analysis focuses on how software firms perform individual activities and how they interact with other players in performing the activities. The clustering of software firms in Oslo rests first of all on the need for very close interaction between consulting companies and important customers, and among software consulting companies themselves. The fact is that consulting activity is project-based and involves lots of coalition-building and face-to-face contact which is facilitated when players co-locate. Demand-side factors are important in explaining the concentration of software companies in Oslo, while important supply-side factors are the possibilities of meeting persons in other software firms and the gathering of information in formal and informal settings.

Regional clusters and competitiveness: The Norwegian case

Abstract The article examines some of the assertions reported in the international literature on regional clusters of small and medium‐sized firms; that such clusters often experience job growth and are internationally competitive. These assertions are based mainly on case studies of various industrial districts and other types of regional clusters, while this article will analyze statistical material to see whether similar trends can be observed in Norway between 1970 and 1990. Thus, the article identifies different kinds of regional clusters in Norway in 1990, as well as employment trends in the clusters between 1970 and 1990. Questions are: Have the regional clusters in, for instance, the furniture industry or the electronics industry in Norway a relatively larger job growth then the average in these industries? The analysis indicates that regional clusters generally are internationally competitive, and the analysis reveals that regional clusters in Norway, with some important exceptions, experience a ...

Regions, networks and innovative performance: The case of knowledge-intensive industries in Norway

Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and rural areas.The empirical results contradict some of the assumptions of the literature dealing with agglomeration economies, regional clusters, and so on. We find, for example, that the firms’ innovation partners and knowledge sources are quite similar irrespective of location. This may indicate that the relevant innovation systems in knowledge-intensive industries in Norway are sectoral and national rather than regional. The paper also finds that the small urban regions and the rural regions have a higher share of innovating, knowledge-intensive firms than the large urban regions, which may partly be explained by a much higher rate of public funding of innovation activity in the first two regional types. However, the large urban regions have higher new firm formation rates and more radically innovating firms than the other two types of region. The paper discusses to what extent the concept of open innovation may contribute to explaining the empirical results, because firms in large urban regions can rely more on open innovation than firms in other regions.

Different Modes of Innovation and the Challenge of Connecting Universities and Industry: Case Studies of Two Regional Industries in Norway

The paper argues that no single formula exists for how universities can stimulate innovation activity and industrial development in a particular region. The type of university–industry cooperation must be fined-tuned according to the knowledge base of the university and to the dominant mode of innovation in the regional industry. This article discusses two different modes of innovation: science, technology, innovation (STI) and doing, using, interacting (DUI). The unit of analysis is innovation and cooperation with universities in two regional industries in Norway, which are dominated by the two modes of innovation: STI (marine biotechnology in Tromsø) and DUI (oil and gas equipment suppliers in Agder). The empirical analyses demonstrate the different roles that universities play in these two regional industries. The University of Tromsø is the main organization behind the development of the marine biotechnology industry in Tromsø and is an important knowledge node and source of biotechnology spin-offs. Equipment suppliers in Agder have become world leaders in some niches, almost without research cooperation with universities. A general lesson is that the dominant mode of innovation in a regional industry makes a difference to the role universities can play in stimulating the development of the industry.

Technology Cities in Norway: Innovating in Glocal Networks

Abstract This paper compares learning, knowledge flows and innovation processes in the high-tech clusters in four small Norwegian cities, which are specialized in high-tech industries. It addresses how the clusters have developed historically with important national stimuli and engagement, examines what existing knowledge sources and innovation networks the high-tech firms use and are integrated in, and identifies which of these are particularly locally rooted vis-à-vis relying more on global pipelines. The paper underlines the importance of glocal (global and local) networks for the innovation capabilities of high-tech firms in small regional clusters. However, it also critically examines the concepts of glocal networks and “local buzz and global pipelines”, and argues in particular for the need to take into account some other types of proximities and spatial levels that directly and indirectly are focused by these concepts. Thus, the national level is found to be central in initiating the building of clusters in new industries, particularly in “resource thin” peripheral regions.

One Size Fits All? Applying the Creative Class Thesis onto a Nordic Context

The creative class thesis put forward by Florida [(2002a) The Rise of the Creative Class and How its transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books)] has in recent years been subject to vivid debate and criticism. This article applies the creative class thesis onto a Nordic context in order to examine whether Floridas theory proves fruitful in a context different from the US. Based on qualitative data, the paper analyses the role of people climate and business climate for the location of the creative class and firms in three different kinds of regions in four Nordic countries. The analyses demonstrate that the people climate tends to be of secondary importance to the business climate in explaining the location of the Nordic creative class. This should be seen as a result of the urban hierarchy within the Nordic countries as well as a strong welfare policy, which ensures an equal distribution of public provision and supports dual career households. Together, these factors diminish the role of people climate for location choices. The study also finds that the notion of people climate has different meanings in various places, and what attracts or repels the creative class depends on the life phases of the members of the creative class. The study raises concerns about the potential for applying the creative class approach beyond large city regions, which limits its usability in regional planning.

Combined Innovation Policy: Linking Scientific and Practical Knowledge in Innovation Systems

Abstract New research indicates that firms combining the science-based STI (Science, Technology, Innovation) and the experience-based DUI (Doing, Using, Interacting) modes of innovation are more efficient when it comes to improving innovation capacity and competitiveness. With regard to innovation policy, the STI mode calls for a supply-driven policy, typically aimed to commercialize research results. The DUI mode suggests a demand-driven policy approach, such as supporting the development of new products or services to specific markets. This article analyses how the two types of innovation policies and the two innovation modes can be combined in regional innovation systems (RISs). The analysis builds on studies of the food industry and related knowledge organizations in two counties, Rogaland County (Norway) and Skåne County (Sweden), and two policy initiatives (NCE Culinology and Skåne Food Innovation Network) aimed at strengthening the innovative capability of the RISs. The analysis indicates that policies aimed to link science- and user-driven innovation activity should focus on building absorptive capacity of DUI firms (e.g. through increased scientific competence) and implementation capacity of STI firms (e.g. through increased market and process competence).