Innovating in the Periphery: Firms, Values and Innovation in Southwest Norway

Abstract

How do peripheral and relatively isolated regions innovate? Recent research has tended to stress the importance of agglomeration economies and geographical proximity as key motors of innovation. According to this research, large core areas have significant advantages with respect to peripheral areas in innovation potential. Yet, despite these trends, some remote areas of the periphery are remarkably innovative even in the absence of critical innovation masses. In this paper, we examine one such case—the region of southwest Norway—which has managed to remain innovative and dynamic, despite having a below average investment in R&D in the Norwegian context. The results of the paper highlight that innovation in southwest Norway does not stem from agglomeration and physical proximity, but from other types of proximity, such as cognitive and organizational proximity, rooted in soft institutional arrangements. This suggests that the formation of regional hubs with strong connections to international innovative networks may be a way to overcome peripherality in order to innovate.

Acknowledgements

This research was financed by the Stavanger Centre for Innovation Research and the Sparebank1 SR-Bank. It is also part of the Prociudad-CM programme and of the research programme of the independent UK Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC). The paper has previously been presented at the Regional Studies Association annual conference in Leuven, Belgium, in April 2009, at the Stavanger Innovation Summit in June 2009 and at workshops at the International Research Institute of Stavanger and the University of Stavanger. The authors thank all participants at these events for their inputs.

Notes

See, for example, the contributions to the special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society (McCann, 2008) on “The world is not flat”.

These are Oslo (including Akershus county), Bergen (in Hordaland), Stavanger, Trondheim (in south Trøndelag), Kristiansand and Tromsø (in Troms).

The GDPR per capita of Vest-Agder was NOK 296,478 and that of Aust-Agder NOK 251,242. Companies in the Kristiansand city region were granted 0.4 patents per 10,000 inhabitants in 2006.

The choice of a logistic regression analysis above alternative methods is determined by the fact that we are using a dichotomous dependent variable (innovative or non-innovative). The logistic regression analyses factors affecting the likelihood of a business having introduced an innovation.

These were internal sources, suppliers, customers, competitors, companies in other industries, consultancies, universities, research institutes, conferences, scientific journals, industry magazines, business associations, authorities and informal networks.

Among the business managers surveyed, 84.2% agreed that “most people can be trusted”.