The problem of financial inclusion represents a strategic opportunity for bank innovation.The success of microfinance in providing an answer, both operationally efficient and effective depends on the specific technology of microcredit available – i.e. the set of methodologies, criteria,...

The challenges of payment transactions in electronic commerce were initially underestimated, as is now clear in the light of technological progress and stricter legislation, meaning traditional business models are increasingly coming up against their limits. Only secure, user- friendly and...

Web 2.0 heralds a new era of communication with a massive increase in information supply and where news, opinion and services flow directly from user to user. Financial institutions can take advantage if they stay abreast of this development. However, any Web 2.0 presence of a financial...

Established payment systems play a dominant role also in B2C e-commerce. Innovative payment systems can only be a success here if they pay attention to the particular features of e-commerce, convey the worth of their value-adding unique selling proposition and enjoy the support of established...

Driving forces behind the occurrence of either paradigm shifts in science, or the development of new orientations within science, are often linked to demands for an increased validity or reliability in knowledge production in science. With this as a starting point, I discuss parallels and...

This paper presents a somewhat novel theory of innovation in the economy wide setting. The starting point for this theory is the creative destruction process at the firm and industry level. However, an extension to an economy wide setting requires the explicit theorization of the role of the...

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between private and public investment in R&D. Various models proposed in the literature to take account for several instruments policies as: (subsidies, taxes…) are estimated to verify if private and public R&D spending are complement or...

Evolutionary theories of technological change and industrial dynamics give primary importance to interaction between heterogeneous agents, endowed with complementary assets and competencies. Accordingly, support to co-operative R&D is central to technology policy, as a mean for increasing system...

Recent studies of capital-skill complementarity suffer from several important empirical limitations and a theoretical framework that treats technological change as exogenous. This paper addresses some of these limitations using a new, detailed firm-level dataset on technology usage and labor...

It is often claimed that the opportunities to create new manufacturing jobs in open, high-cost economies such as Norway, are concentrated in activities which are technologically advanced and knowledge intensive. This paper examines the relationship between job creation and innovation, as...