Between close and distanced links: Firm internationalization in a subsea cluster in Western Norway

Karlsen, A. & Nordhus, M. 2011. Between close and distanced links: Firm internationalization in a subsea cluster in Western Norway. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 65, 202–211. ISSN 0029-1951.

The cluster concept has attracted attention from scholars and become increasingly popular in regional politics, as exemplified by The Norwegian Centres of Expertise programme. External linkages of cluster firms have become a concern inspired by the notions ‘local buzz’ and ‘global pipelines’. Viable clusters are dependent on the quality of both internal industrial environment and external linkages. The article focuses on internationalization of SMEs from a cluster perspective and discusses how cluster firms take advantage of different dimensions of proximity in their internationalization endeavours. By applying the industrial network approach, firms’ strategies and positions at different stages of internationalization are integrated in the analysis. The cases are four SMEs located in a ‘subsea cluster’ close to Bergen, Norway. Data were collected through interviews with top managers and observations during cluster-related meetings. The cases differ with regard to size and international experiences. Firms that are highly internationalized rely on cognitive or organizational proximity when they internationalize further. Such firms provide opportunities for other cluster firms. In contrast, less internationalized firms rely on social and institutional types of proximity. As they collaborate with larger and more experienced cluster firms they can skip some of the resource-demanding steps in the internationalizing process.     

中资企业研发国际化研究述评

中资跨国公司研发国际化服务于中国"全面提高开放型经济水平"和"创新驱动发展战略"两大政策方针,是重要的地理学研究前沿。本文系统评述了中资企业研发国际化的定义、理论基础、研究内容、数据和方法,发现基于发达国家跨国公司实践建立起的经典理论还不足以解释中资企业行为。相比于快速发展的中资企业跨国研发活动行为,现有的实证研究存在着研究视角、内容和方法的局限,未来应发扬地理学多尺度研究的优势,综合分析企业研发国际化与区域发展的互动机制;发扬地理学重视区域差异的优势,开展在"一带一路"国家中资企业研发国际化的异质性研究;发扬地理学重视实地调研的优势,综合多种方法和数据的相互印证。     

Rural modernisation as national development: The Norwegian case 1900–1950

Nilsen, R. 2014. Rural modernisation as national development: The Norwegian case 1900–1950. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 68, 50–58. ISSN 0029-1951.

The aim of the article is to explain the maintenance of a pattern of scattered rural settlement in Norway during industrialisation and modernisation. The ‘master narrative’ of Norwegian transformation, based on the development of waterpower and the metallurgical and fertiliser industries, is only one of three narratives that can be told about the national transformation in the 20th century. A second narrative concerns the modernisation along the coast, and a third concerns the development of a varied, mostly rural, manufacturing and import-substituting industry. It is suggested that this attempt at rewriting the history of Norwegian modernisation can do what the master narrative does not do, namely explain the transformation from a poor to a rich society while more than half of the national population continued to live in rural areas.     

Scalar politics and strategic consolidation: The Norwegian Gas Forum's quest for embedding Norwegian gas resources in domestic space

Underthun, A., Kasa, S. & Reitan, M. 2011. Scalar politics and strategic consolidation: The Norwegian Gas Forum's quest for embedding Norwegian gas resources in domestic space. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography Vol. 65, 226–237. ISSN 0029-1951.

The article discusses political initiatives and networks that aim to enhance the use of Norwegian natural gas resources in domestic space. Through perspectives on state rescaling and scalar politics, the authors explore the strategies of the Norwegian Gas Forum (NGF). This political network serves as an umbrella organization for regional political initiatives for local distribution and exploitation of natural gas along the Norwegian coast. It is argued that the initiatives demonstrate a scalar politics that counter tendencies of state rescaling in the realm of petroleum politics, where the state is less willing to invest and intervene in domestic natural gas utilization. The article examines the NGF's policy work, organizational composition, and ‘networks of association’ with other organizations. This is framed in the analysis as ‘scalar politics’ aiming to secure the member regions’ current and future dependence on domestic gas supplies. The important networks of association in relation to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) implied compromise and consolidation among the regional members of NGF, but also empowered NGF on important policy issues.     

Local content in emerging growth poles: Local effects of multinational corporations’ use of contract strategies

The article analyses ‘local content’ in the strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs). Local content is explored as a link between MNCs and growth poles emerging through contract systems that encourage regional firms to connect with global networks entering a region. With a theoretical starting point in literature on local content and growth pole development, the analysis contributes to developing theories of growth poles by adding novel elements such as MNCs’ procurement strategies and their influence on growth poles through local content in contracts. Three aspects of MNCs’ contracts able to secure local content and thus increase contributions from extraction projects to regional development processes are analysed: (1) whether and how MNC projects are divided into subcontract modules, (2) the position and use of framework contracts, and (3) how transportation costs to sites are included in the biddings. It is concluded that further research on MNCs and local content would need to be aware of the following: factors that facilitate or maintain discrimination between bidders included and not included in global networks; reasons why advantages of geographical proximity are underexposed; and how public authorities (states) establish rules that give equality to local enterprises in their competition with firms entering from outside.     

Elite discourses of regional identity in a new regionalism development scheme: The case of the ‘Mountain Region’ in Norway

Norway's regional structure is under debate as questions about territorial boundaries, scale, scope of tasks and responsibilities, and decision-making structures have become an issue in Norwegian politics. This tendency of changing the scale of public action with regard to governmental structures, economic politics, welfare, and civic society has been termed ‘new regionalism’. New regionalism often comes under criticism of being too neo-liberalistic or too economically orientated, leaving in its wake debates of democratic accountability and the neglect of ‘soft factors’ (i.e. socio-culture, identity, consciousness, and participation). In this article the authors investigate whether new democratic or semi-democratic regional organisations as advocated by new regionalist schemes require identification amongst the local population in order to be successful and enduring governmental structures. Further, it is shown how too simplistic understandings of the social processes, and their inherent power aspects, involved in the implementation of the new regionalist development scheme ‘Mountain Region’ distort the undertaking. The authors find that a more complex relational and contextual understanding is in demand, one in which regionalisation is not only recognised as a process which diffuses across time-space, but also takes an asymmetrical place across society's social fabric, and one where ‘soft factors’ such as ‘regional identity’ are not sidestepped.     

Regional diversification in the Norwegian fish-processing industry

The fish-processing industry, one of the most important industries of coastal Norway, consists of approximately 500 firms employing 12,500 people. This article draws attention to the regional specialisation of the Norwegian fish-processing industry. Changes in the level of activity and in profitability at the regional level can to a large extent be linked to characteristics of the regional production system in different areas. In order to develop a more profitable and market-oriented industry, we argue for a regionalised policy approach that encourages the establishment of inter-firm relations and collective learning processes at the level of the regional production milieux. A regionalisation of the national policy would be the most sustainable way of stimulating more efficient longterm business strategies in this industry.     

国际区域友好关系和企业全球化的知识管道构建

经济地理学中的“本地蜂鸣-全球管道”模型解释了本地企业如何通过长期互动学习,逐步形成有利于企业全球化的重要知识俘获渠道。中小企业因自身能力和国际化经验的缺乏,往往会规避时间成本和风险,另辟蹊径地实施国际化战略。本文以浙江省和德国石荷州国际友好关系为例,通过田野调查和对利益相关人的深度访谈,对该关系框架下浙江中小企业“走出去”过程中的知识俘获机制进行分析。结果显示：①国际区域友好相关机构扮演着“知识守门员”角色,为双边中小型企业的全球化提供准确的、高效的和定制化的信息。②国际区域友好关系推动基于政府担保的、多方参与的“全球蜂鸣”空间形成,使得企业以较低成本获得社会、认知和组织临近,以此俘获“走出去”的关键知识;③国际区域友好关系为两地搭建一种新型的“全球管道”,有利于形成面向“精准全球化”的动态蜂鸣社群。本研究强调：地方政府主导的国际区域友好关系是中小企业“全球管道”构建的重要制度平台,这种“全球蜂鸣-全球管道”知识动态模式是对传统“本地蜂鸣-全球管道”概念的重要补充。     

MIGRATION,SENSE OF PLACE,AND NONMETROPOLITAN VITALITY

Across Europe there is a lively policy and academic debate on what the essential conditions are for the development of new economic activities in city-regions. The focus is on knowledge-intensive and creative industries. Different theories (glocalization, clustering, embeddedness, path dependence, "hard" and "soft" location factors) identify the essential factors. In this article, we review debates and theories on these conditions and specifically focus on the different pathways city-regions follow. This results in a set of hypotheses, which are evaluated with empirical evidence from three city-regions: Amsterdam, Birmingham, and Budapest. In each of these city-regions factors can be identified that inhibit the growth of knowledge-intensive and creative industries as well as enable such development. Rather than moving toward a common type of city-region, it is likely that distinctive economic outcomes will be generated due to strengths and assets inherited from the past.     

德国在华知识密集制造业投资进入方式的时空特征及区位影响因素

外资知识密集型制造业进入中国市场,对中国制造业升级转型起着一定的作用。本文围绕区域制度环境和区域吸收能力,探讨影响知识密集型企业进入方式的区域环境,旨在揭示知识密集型产业的外商进入方式的地理驱动机制,有利于加深理解在经济发展方式转型的时代背景下,区域与城市获得外生技术发展动力的机制。采用从1982-2014年德国在华投资企业数据库,结果发现,德国知识密集型制造企业在中国的投资呈现由沿海地区向内陆地区扩张、沿海中心城市向周边城市扩散的时空趋势,并且在1995年后,其进入方式从合资为主向独资为主转变。逻辑计量模型显示,德国知识密集型制造企业的进入方式受到多项区位因子的影响,其中地方人力资源水平和产业专业化水平是知识密集型制造企业选择以合资方式的进入中国市场的重要区位因素,表明区域知识吸收能力是形成全球—地方战略协同的关键变量;另一方面,实际使用外资存量和地方专利授权量这两个区位影响因素则会显著促成知识密集型制造企业采用独资的进入决策,反映了区域制度环境对吸引以知识产权保护为战略核心的知识密集型制造业的作用。     

Home matters: The role of home in property enactment on Norwegian smallholdings

The article argues that geographies of home add important perspectives for analysing property enactment on Norwegian smallholdings. Characteristics of smallholdings as homes are described, and it is demonstrated that ‘home matters’ in terms of how property owners’ senses of home affect how properties become enacted. In conformity with recent theories in legal geography, the article demonstrates that these socio-spatial relationships conflict with the dominant ownership model which permeates public policy initiatives. The ownership model assumes a single owner motivated by self-regarding behaviour and maximising economic benefits. The article, however, reveals a deep sense of home and place attachment relating to Norwegian smallholdings, and this influences how smallholdings as properties become enacted, and thus, how legal instruments aiming at affecting people's behaviour are responded to. The article draws upon empirical research conducted among current and former owners of smallholdings in four Norwegian local authority districts.     

中小企业集群信息技术应用及其影响因素分析 ———以温岭市鞋业集群为例

近年来, 信息技术的广泛应用正在对产业集群的形成和发展产生着深刻的影响。基于现 代信息技术所形成的网络联系逐渐成为产业集群关系网络的主要内容之一, 是深刻理解产业集 群演化和升级机制的重要方面。特别是, 信息技术可以使产业集群内中小企业空间联系的范围扩 大、时间成本下降, 为其走向全球市场提供便利的条件。本文首先回顾了我国企业信息技术应用 的发展过程与具体形式, 并在此基础上阐述了影响中小企业集群中信息技术应用的主要因素, 最 后以浙江省温岭市鞋业集群为案例分析了这些因素的具体作用。     

中小企业集群信息技术应用及其影响因素分析——以温岭市鞋业集群为例

近年来, 信息技术的广泛应用正在对产业集群的形成和发展产生着深刻的影响。基于现 代信息技术所形成的网络联系逐渐成为产业集群关系网络的主要内容之一, 是深刻理解产业集 群演化和升级机制的重要方面。特别是, 信息技术可以使产业集群内中小企业空间联系的范围扩 大、时间成本下降, 为其走向全球市场提供便利的条件。本文首先回顾了我国企业信息技术应用 的发展过程与具体形式, 并在此基础上阐述了影响中小企业集群中信息技术应用的主要因素, 最 后以浙江省温岭市鞋业集群为案例分析了这些因素的具体作用。     

The experimental governing of mobility and trade on the China‐Laos frontier: The Tai Lue case

This paper discusses the governing of subjects and objects' mobility in the context of trans‐border rice and corn trade on the China‐Laos frontier. It traces the attempts by a group of ethnic Tai Lue traders from China to assert themselves as ‘flexible subjects’ and economically triumphant actors on the Upper Mekong market in the era of economic regionalization. It illustrates how, between 2005 and mid‐2006, the traders' economic success relied on a variety of ‘border strategies’. ‘Border strategies’ include a gender‐balanced organization of trade, the instrumental deployment of trans‐border ethnicity, the appropriation of a Han style of business, the opportunistic reliance on the Chinese administration's ‘regime of graduated mobility’, and the enactment of a ‘war‐machine’ against Lao state agents. Yet, in late 2006, a new wave of state authoritarianism, enmeshed in corporate accumulation processes, inhibited the traders' success. The paper suggests that, unlike what some defenders of globalization and transnational theories maintain, in the age of economic regionalization, the alleged flexibility and increased mobility of subjects and objects across the borders of the Greater Mekong Subregion remain conditional on an unpredictable mechanism of loosening and tightening. This is part of a long‐applied governing pattern of ‘experimentation under hierarchy’ on the Sino‐Lao frontier.     

DOCTORAL THESES – DOKTORAVHANDLINGER

The article examines the role of ‘local paths’ and ‘substrates’ (networks, stakeholders, and human and economic capital) in the revitalization strategies of shrinking cities. Relationships between local stakeholders as well as their initiatives to revitalize declining cities determine not only future decision-making but also the demographic, economic, environmental, and social evolution of those cities. The article analyses two medium-sized declining cities in the old industrial region of Asturias, Spain. After a presentation of the processes that led to the studied cities' rise and decline, their revitalization strategies are analysed and interpreted on the basis of the local stakeholders' role. In these cities, the impact of local factors may largely explain the uneven evolutionary path in each city following crisis in their respective leading industries.     

Co-evolutionary dynamics and institutions: Innovation in a guild community in Norway

ABSTRACT

The video game industry is often portrayed as a ‘footloose industry’ in which electronic goods can be produced and distributed from any location without positive or negative effects from factors such as resources or proximity to market. Hence, a conventional assumption is that the role of place is greatly diminished in the case of such industries. The author tests this assumption by analysing firms’ practice in a game developer community in Bergen, Norway, and the spatiality of linkages between the community and the environment. He proposes an alternative analytical framework for understanding practice in the industry, one that recognizes that a firm's practice is either embedded within or related to networks and institutional structures. The question of how contextual conditions, embeddedness and networks are treated in the literature on innovation is discussed, and the concept of community as an analytical concept is introduced and applied. After showing how practice in the case community has evolved within the cultural, social and territorial context, the author concludes that a portrayal of the game industry as a ‘footloose industry’ disembedded from its surroundings should be avoided, and instead the dynamic relationship between actors, context and practice should be heeded.     

Encountering a multidimensional assemblage: The case of Norwegian corporate social responsibility activities in Indonesia

A vociferous debate on socio-spatial formations is ongoing between those advocating a geography of scales and those advocating flat ontologies and assemblages, yet a middle ground has not been properly addressed. The author argues for an empirically driven, multidimensional assemblage approach whereby the processes constituting an assemblage and the different socio-spatial organisation of heterogeneous entities form the analytical basis for geographical analyses of particular empirical events. He shows how Norwegian companies in Indonesia encounter different stakeholders constituting a multidimensional (situated, scaled, and networked) ‘assemblage of national interests’ with multitudinous motivations and drivers but quite specific converged influence. He examines the territorialising forces employed during such encounters, the de-territorialising forces challenging the assemblage, and how the evolution of the ‘assemblage of national interests’ resulted in 2012 in the world's first law on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has more or less forced Norwegian companies to make social investments in local communities within a CRS framing. The findings are that assemblages are scaled and networked, but also uncoordinated and ‘chaotic’. Norwegian companies in Indonesia are subject to a joint but dispersed, multidimensional assemblage of national interest, where stakeholders on different scales, with multiple motivations, mobilise to persuade them to run social investment programmes.     

Configuring floating production networks: A case study of a new offshore wind technology across two oil and gas economies

ABSTRACT

The authors employ the global production network (GPN) approach to analyse the development of the renewable energy sector. Through a case study of the development of a Hywind floating offshore wind project (Hywind) across two oil and gas economies, namely Norway and Scotland, the paper sheds light on the key drivers and role of core GPN actors. Methodologically, the authors investigate the process from both ‘inside-out’ and ‘outside-in’ perspectives, referring to the efforts of firms expanding into overseas markets and the efforts of host countries to attract investment from outside their territories. The analysis shows how the configuration of extractive production networks is shaped by the interactions between the network development practices of firms and the market development strategies of host states. The authors conclude that the distinct materiality of floating wind power technology shapes the territorial configuration of the production network by enabling its spatial extension across a range of locations. By contrast, existing research on other extractive sectors has emphasized the spatially constraining effects of materiality (Bridge 2008).     

A ferry making waves: A demonstration project ‘doing’ institutional work in a greening maritime industry

ABSTRACT

The objective of the article is to show how the demonstration project and battery ferry Ampere has contributed to a greening of public ferry procurement in Norway. Building on theories on demonstration projects in transition studies and institutional work, the author argues for a more integrated focus than hitherto on the dynamic interplay of materiality, organization, and discourse in demonstration projects, and how the agency of actor networks and the materiality connected to demonstration projects can affect institutional change accompanying transition processes. This is done by conceptualizing Ampere as a ‘performing project’: a complex of discursive and organizational strategies of framing and lobbying deployed by the actor networks connected to it and its materiality. Methodically, the author draws on semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The results suggest that Ampere’s ‘performance’ has contributed to changes in national and regional ferry procurement practices and been vital for an emerging maritime battery niche.     

Developing survey metrics for analysing cross-border proximity

Cross-border innovation cooperation (CBIC) has been heralded as one of the corner stones of innovation-driven growth opportunities for firms located in cross-border regions (CBRs). The success of this cooperation is affected by varying types of proximities identified in the literature as geographical, institutional, cultural, cognitive, technological, organizational and social. Although the topic has been widely discussed, the validation of the concept of proximity vis-à-vis CBIC has been persistently hindered by a lack of readily available empirical metrics. Therefore, this research note attempts to operationalize the varying types of proximity – in relation to CBIC – in the form of a questionnaire tested through pilot studies of two CBRs, at the Finnish–Swedish and Danish–German border, and for two contrasting service industries, namely knowledge-intensive business services and tourism. The findings indicate that the developed survey metrics are effective in depicting the phenomenon of proximity. The foundational work undertaken in this research note provides a platform, and catalyst, for more extensive investigations of the topic.