This paper analyses the historical role of public research organisations for industrial growth and innovation in Norway – and the changes in this role over time. Public research organisations include research institutes and higher education institutions, and we go back in time to the 19th...

Research on biotechnology related firms has long been associated with the agglomeration of “dedicated biotechnology firms” and partners such as large corporations, research institutes and venture capital firms. At the same time it is acknowledged that such agglomeration trends may be most...

The article concludes that although the Norwegian IT industry has been lacking in export success the last 30 years, it has been important for the development of the Norwegian economy. Several IT companies have been on the verge of international breakthroughs, but have been stopped by rising...

There is no shortage of syntheses or overviews on specific topics within innovation studies. Much more rare are attempts to synthesize on the syntheses, i.e., cover the entire area of innovation studies, emphasize the achievements that have been made, discuss the implications for policy and...

Constant market shares (CMS) analyses are frequently used in applied studies of export development. This paper reviews the development of the method and argues that it can be considerably improved. A new version of the method is developed which, in addition to the familiar CMS effects, also...

Social innovation is once more an increasingly popular notion circulating as an apparent means to solve the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. But this common-sense idea of social innovation is based on a quasi-concept, where processes of innovation are absent. To restore some academic rigour...

Social innovation is once more an increasingly popular notion circulating as an apparent means to solve the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. But this common-sense idea of social innovation is based on a quasi-concept, where processes of innovation are absent. To restore some academic rigour...

This paper develops and tests a model of differing trends in international competitiveness and economic growth across countries. The model relates the development of market shares at home and abroad to three sets of factors: the ability to compete in technology, the ability to compete in...

During the 1950s and 1960s, a coherent system of economic policies was implemented in Norway. The article analyses the origins and functioning of this Norwegian model and shows how it broke down under the influence of both external and internal pressures from the mid-1970s onwards. By the early...