Rune Njøs

Cluster policy and regional development: scale, scope and renewal

Consistent with Marshallian/Porterian theories, the Norwegian cluster policy has been linked to the development of specialized regional industry environments. Cluster projects are relatively sector-specific entities often supporting (already) strong regional industries and sectors. Following a review of the current literature on clusters and innovation, and informed by evolutionary thought, we argue that such constellations of specialized clusters may hamper the long-term innovation ability of regions. In a conceptual discussion of cluster evolution and its links to innovation and regional path renewal, we argue that special emphasis – both theoretical and political – has been placed on the geographical scale of clusters, but there has been less emphasis on scope. Accordingly, we present three theory-based strategies for cluster evolution and link these to regional development and innovation by assessing their impact on regional path renewal. We illustrate our argument empirically using examples from the Norwegian Centre of Expertise (NCE) cluster programme.

Encounters between cluster theory, policy and practice in Norway: Hubbing, blending and conceptual stretching

For more than two decades, cluster theory has served as a basis for widespread implementation of regional development policies in several countries. However, there are still persistent struggles in academia towards agreement on clear operational definitions of a cluster. In this article, we argue that this definitional haziness, reflected by difficulties in demarcating the scale and scope of clusters, leads to a stretching of the cluster concept when put into practice. We show how actors, through cluster projects, are utilizing strategies of “hubbing” and/or “blending” to develop their own understandings of both what clusters are and what they might or should be. Through studies of three Norwegian cluster projects, we argue that national cluster policies, through translation of an academically vague concept, facilitate a stretching of the original definition of clusters, giving regional stakeholders leeway to integrate other theoretical rationales instead. We argue that this is not taken into account in current policies.

Foreign direct investment and renewal of industries: framing the reciprocity between materiality and discourse

ABSTRACT Informed by the evolutionary literature on economic geography, this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing the complexity between foreign direct investment (FDI) and renewal of industries. Present contributions tend to explain the impact of FDI on regional industry evolution as a static, output-oriented phenomenon, that is, informed by an instrumental rationale in which the dynamism of FDI and regional industry development is linked to polarization of stagnation/decline vs. growth/development. Opposing this, we argue for an epistemological shift in approach to the reciprocity between FDI and renewal of industries as dynamism between material outcomes and discursive processes. To accomplish this, we build on key concepts and understandings from evolutionary economic geography; review the regional effects of FDI literature and build a framework sensitive to contextual dimensions of FDI. We focus on multinational companies’ practices and material outcomes in terms of regional spillovers and the discursive processes in terms of FDI narratives. This framework is exemplified by data from the salmon farming industry and the subsea industry in Hordaland and the oil and gas industry and the mining industry in Finnmark.

Market-driven organizational lock-in: A case study of a former first mover

ABSTRACT The article addresses the question of how an innovative firm develops from being a first mover to an innovation laggard and whether this process can be reversed. Informed by the evolutionary perspective and path-dependence theory, the authors explore how a low-tech Norwegian firm in the oil and gas industry has lost its foothold as an innovator. They also employ the concept of organizational architecture as an analytical tool to investigate the agency for breaking organizational paths. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, their study revealed that the innovation activity of the case firm is in a state of lock-in following a path-dependence development. Product development in the firm is linked to incremental changes to existing products based on the feedback from the customer, and the process is characterized by knowledge exploitation rather than knowledge exploration. The article adds to the literature on path dependence by identifying how a strong market pull can be a driver for organizational path dependence and lock-in.

Regional industrial restructuring resulting from individual and system agency

The article discusses mechanisms and policy that stimulate regional economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is conceptualised through the notion of path development. The article distinguishes four types of path development: the extension and upgrading of existing regional industries are two types, diversification of existing industries and the creation of new industry paths are the two others and more substantial path developments. A main idea in the article is that new path development requires industry actors who initiate new firms or innovation activities in existing firms, i.e. firm level agency, but that restructuring also requires action by actors operating in the regional support system, i.e. system level agency. System level agency, understood as actions or intervention to transform regional innovation systems to better support economic restructuring, is particularly important for the two most ‘radical’ types of restructuring, i.e. path diversification and creation, and in regions with thin and specialised knowledge and industrial structure.

Linking the bottom-up and top-down evolution of regional innovation systems to policy: organizations, support structures and learning processes

Abstract The literature is ambiguous about whether regional innovation systems (RIS) evolve bottom-up or top-down. This is reflected in RIS policies, which tend to focus on either development of the actor level, i.e. organizations in a RIS, or the system level, i.e. the support structure for innovation. Here, we analyzed a Norwegian RIS policy programme, the Programme for Regional R&D and Innovation (VRI), which aimed to combine both approaches. We found that VRI mainly developed the support structure for innovation and that learning outcomes from VRI involvement in organizations differed between the involved actor groups. This is particularly so for RIS development in regions inexperienced with support structure development prior to VRI involvement. Conversely, in regions with well-functioning support structures prior to VRI, the focus was most beneficially on stimulating learning at the actor level. We argue that future research should investigate mechanisms and interlinkages between the two levels and especially their regional particularities.

Cluster renewal and the heterogeneity of extra-regional linkages: a study of MNC practices in a subsea petroleum cluster

Abstract The cluster literature in general and evolutionary economic geography in particular emphasizes the importance of extra-regional linkages for cluster evolution. However, the literature does so without necessarily nuancing the content, i.e., heterogeneity, of such linkages. We argue that treating extra-regional linkages as homogeneous hampers an important aspect of cluster renewal; namely, that it is context specific and dependent upon the diversified practices of the involved multinational companies (MNCs). In so doing, we also argue that relational approaches to economic geography offer an important insight into the evolutionary perspective. We investigate one of Norway’s strongest and most dynamic industry clusters, the subsea cluster in Hordaland county, and discuss the usefulness of combining relational and evolutionary understandings in analytical frameworks that address cluster renewal. This study shows that the practice of regional firms that internationalize (labelled MNC out) and foreign-owned MNCs coming into the cluster (MNC in) contribute in different ways to renewal of the cluster. We find that the practices of MNC out contribute to further specialization of the cluster, whereas the practices of MNC in contribute to diversification of economic activities. Both types of extra-regional linkages are important for renewal of the cluster, as they together represent a mix between continuation and change of existing activities. Necessarily, such interplays between MNC practices and cluster evolution pan out differently in different contexts, but we argue that the literature should acknowledge that extra-regional linkages are heterogeneous and contribute differently to cluster evolution in general and renewal in particular.