Markus Steen

Same Sea, Different Ponds: Cross-Sectorial Knowledge Spillovers in the North Sea

Abstract Knowledge spillovers are crucial to innovation and upgrading, but it is largely unclear what knowledge spillovers are made of and how they actually happen. The importance of Marshall–Arrow–Romer vs. Jacobs externalities is also a debated matter, whereas the concept of “related variety” has recently come to occupy a middle-ground position. However, the relatedness concept is ambiguous in terms of operationalization and emphasizes codified knowledge on behalf of other knowledge resources that are important for innovation, particularly if firms cross into new sectors. This paper sheds light on the “black box” concepts of knowledge spillovers and relatedness by exploring cross-sectorial transfers from the mature offshore oil and gas sector into the emerging offshore wind industry. A qualitative research design allows for a more nuanced understanding of the contents of knowledge spillovers and (un)relatedness between sectors.

Path creation in a single-industry town: The case of Verdal and Windcluster Mid-Norway

Path creation is a new topic in economic geography and stems from the debate on path dependence. The article fills a gap in the path creation literature by exploring old and new path trajectories in a ‘constraining context’, namely a single-industry town. The authors analyse the development of this local system in an evolutionary perspective. Empirical data are drawn from a case study of the specialized offshore oil and gas industry town of Verdal in Central Norway. Two exogenous shocks to this local economy and the responses they provoked are pivotal to the analysis. The first shock led to upgrading and diversification effects. The second shock led to the attempted path creation discussed in the article: the initiative to develop Windcluster Mid-Norway (WMN), which was a response to the downturn in the oil and gas industry and simultaneous expectations of growth in the wind-energy sector. The explicit aim was to combine resources from both sectors. The authors argue that new path creation in single-industry regions differs from the related context of ‘old industry regions’ and that exogenous shocks and external support are necessary elements in the process.

Upgrading the ‘Petropolis’ of the North? Resource peripheries, global production networks, and local access to the Snøhvit natural gas complex

Steen, M. & Underthun, A. 2011. Upgrading the ‘Petropolis’ of the North? Resource peripheries, global production networks and local access to the Snøhvit natural gas complex. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 65, 212–225. ISSN 0029-1951. The article explores and assesses local and regional firms’ access to a natural gas extraction and refining complex located at the northern frontier of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Controversial in environmental terms, the complex has been largely legitimized by the promise of regional economic development in North Norway, where opportunities for a localized support industry would have to be interpreted as constitutive of such a promise. The article employs a Global Production Network theoretical approach, and the authors pay particular attention to the complex interaction and power struggle between local, national, and global firms and institutions.

Reconsidering path creation in economic geography: aspects of agency, temporality and methods

ABSTRACT The emergence of new industrial development paths is an important topic in economic geography. However, current perspectives emphasizing the constraining forces of historical trajectories on innovation and change have shortcomings in accounting for how and where new industries arise. This article argues that more attention needs to be paid to agency, and that agency must be seen as inter-temporal in the sense that actors’ activities and strategies are framed by combinations of experiences and expectations. As such, the article combines insights from economic geography, transitions studies and the sociology of expectations (SoE) literature to expand extant theory on path creation. A brief analysis of the emerging Norwegian offshore wind power (OWP) sector serves to illustrate how experience (the past) and different types of expectations (the future) have tangible effects on agency, and in effect on path creation processes. These insights have methodological implications, essentially favouring qualitative approaches over quantitative ones to understand formative phases in industrial development.

Barriers to Path Creation: The Case of Offshore Wind Power in Norway.

abstract Although economic geography has made considerable progress in explaining the emergence of new industrial development paths, a number of issues have yet to be sufficiently explored. The purpose of this article is to contribute to economic geography research on path creation by developing a conceptual framework that specifies key conditions and reinforcing mechanisms for path creation, on the one hand, and barriers to the materialization of such conditions and mechanisms, on the other hand. As such, the framework moves beyond firm-centric perspectives and argues that path creation needs to be understood as a collective endeavor incorporating both firm and nonfirm actors. By implication, this necessitates an understanding of the broader contexts that shape path creation processes, including how the dynamics of an emerging path are affected by the dynamics of established paths. The authors employ this framework to analyze Norway’s offshore wind power (OWP) industry. Their analysis reveals that an initial enabling context for OWP path creation turned into more constrained conditions. Similar to findings from a number of other studies, they identify branching between related sectors as a primary path creation mechanism. However, they find that this mechanism is vulnerable to shifting contextual conditions, which for various reasons resulted in the studied emerging path losing resources and legitimacy, thus implying potential negative path interdependence. The authors also identify barriers to path creation in the institutional environment, particularly in terms of lack of policy coherence in support for key resource formation processes that are pivotal for path creation processes to generate sustained momentum.