IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joiaen/v6y2017i1d10.1186_s13731-017-0068-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do general innovation policy tools fit all? Analysis of the regional impact of the Norwegian Skattefunn scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Arne Isaksen

    (University of Agder, School of Business and Law)

  • Roger Henning Normann

    (University of Agder, School of Business and Law)

  • Olav R. Spilling

    (The Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education)

Abstract

Background The paper examines the regional effects of a general innovation policy, i.e. a policy tool that does not target specific industries or subnational regions. General policy tools are an important part of the portfolio of innovation policy measures. However, there is a question over whether general tools are equally relevant for all types of firms, irrespective of their size, sector and location. Findings The economic geography and innovation study literature, as well as the EU’s Smart Specialization approach, are based on the view that innovation policy tools must be adapted to specific regional conditions. General policy tools are insufficient unless they are adapted to individual regions. This paper examines the regional distribution of support from the Norwegian Skattefunn scheme, which is a tax incentive scheme designed to stimulate R&D activity in all types of enterprises, which has supported more than 24,000 approved R&D projects between 2002 and 2013. Based on our regression analysis, we observe that regional innovation system (RIS) variables are important for explaining the region’s ability to attract Skattefunn funding. Conclusions Skattefunn projects are quite evenly spread across labour market regions, which are grouped into a geographical centre–periphery pattern. That is, being in a peripheral location is not a disadvantage. However, at a more detailed regional level, the Skattefunn scheme tends to favour firms in specific industries and in regions with a relatively developed regional innovation system.

Suggested Citation

  • Arne Isaksen & Roger Henning Normann & Olav R. Spilling, 2017. "Do general innovation policy tools fit all? Analysis of the regional impact of the Norwegian Skattefunn scheme," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joiaen:v:6:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s13731-017-0068-x
    DOI: 10.1186/s13731-017-0068-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13731-017-0068-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13731-017-0068-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin Morgan, 2015. "Smart Specialisation: Opportunities and Challenges for Regional Innovation Policy," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 480-482, March.
    2. Fabrizio Barca & Philip McCann & Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, 2012. "The Case For Regional Development Intervention: Place‐Based Versus Place‐Neutral Approaches," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 134-152, February.
    3. Edward Lorenz & B.-A. Lundvall, 2006. "How Europe's Economies Learn," Post-Print halshs-00483659, HAL.
    4. Marino, Marianna & Lhuillery, Stephane & Parrotta, Pierpaolo & Sala, Davide, 2016. "Additionality or crowding-out? An overall evaluation of public R&D subsidy on private R&D expenditure," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1715-1730.
    5. Fulvio Castellacci, 2008. "Innovation in Norway in a European Perspective," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 34, pages 1-1.
    6. Lorenz, Edward & Lundvall, Bengt-Ake (ed.), 2006. "How Europe's Economies Learn: Coordinating Competing Models," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199203192, Decembrie.
    7. Jacek Warda, 2006. "Tax Treatment of Business Investments in Intellectual Assets: An International Comparison," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2006/4, OECD Publishing.
    8. Arne Isaksen, 2015. "Industrial development in thin regions: trapped in path extension?," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 585-600.
    9. Fagerberg, Jan & Mowery, David & Verspagen, Bart (ed.), 2009. "Innovation, Path Dependency, and Policy: The Norwegian Case," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199551552, Decembrie.
    10. Arne Isaksen & Magnus Nilsson, 2013. "Combined Innovation Policy: Linking Scientific and Practical Knowledge in Innovation Systems," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(12), pages 1919-1936, December.
    11. Silvia Appelt & Matej Bajgar & Chiara Criscuolo & Fernando Galindo-Rueda, 2016. "R&D Tax Incentives: Evidence on design, incidence and impacts," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers 32, OECD Publishing.
    12. Todtling, Franz & Trippl, Michaela, 2005. "One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1203-1219, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pedro López-Rubio & Norat Roig-Tierno & Alicia Mas-Tur, 2020. "Regional innovation system research trends: toward knowledge management and entrepreneurial ecosystems," International Journal of Quality Innovation, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erkan Erdil & İbrahim Semih Akçomak & Umut Yılmaz Çetinkaya, 2022. "Is There Knowledge Convergence Among European Regions? Evidence from the European Union Framework Programmes," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 1243-1267, June.
    2. Bjørn T. Asheim & Arne Isaksen & Roman Martin & Michaela Trippl, 2017. "The role of clusters and public policy in new regional economic path development," Chapters, in: Dirk Fornahl & Robert Hassink (ed.), The Life Cycle of Clusters, chapter 1, pages 13-34, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Akcomak, Semih & Erdil, Erkan & Cetinkaya, Umut Yılmaz, 2018. "Knowledge convergence in European regions: Towards cohesion?," MERIT Working Papers 2018-027, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    4. Bjørn Asheim & Ron Boschma & Philip Cooke, 2011. "Constructing Regional Advantage: Platform Policies Based on Related Variety and Differentiated Knowledge Bases," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 893-904.
    5. Asheim , Bjørn & Grillitsch , Markus, 2015. "Smart specialisation: Sources for new path development in a peripheral manufacturing region," Papers in Innovation Studies 2015/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    6. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    7. Riccardo Crescenzi & Marco Di Cataldo & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Government Quality And The Economic Returns Of Transport Infrastructure Investment In European Regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 555-582, September.
    8. Jakob Eder & Michaela Trippl, 2019. "Innovation in the periphery: compensation and exploitation strategies," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_07, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    9. Parrilli, Mario Davide & Balavac, Merima & Radicic, Dragana, 2020. "Business innovation modes and their impact on innovation outputs: Regional variations and the nature of innovation across EU regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).
    10. Steve Fothergill & Tony Gore & Peter Wells, 2019. "Industrial strategy and the UK regions: sectorally narrow and spatially blind," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 12(3), pages 445-466.
    11. Hung-Nien Hsieh & Chi-Mei Chen & Jun-Yao Wang & Tai-Shan Hu, 2015. "Knowledge-Intensive Business Services as Knowledge Intermediaries in Industrial Regions: A Comparison of the Hsinchu and Tainan Metropolitan Areas," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(11), pages 2253-2274, November.
    12. Miguel Poiares Maduro & Giulio Pasi & Gianluca Misuraca, 2018. "Social Impact Investment in the EU. Financing strategies and outcome oriented approaches for social policy innovation: narratives, experiences, and recommendations," JRC Research Reports JRC111373, Joint Research Centre.
    13. Michael A. Peters, 2011. "Three Forms of the Knowledge Economy: Learning, Creativity and Openness," Chapters, in: Roger King & Simon Marginson & Rajani Naidoo (ed.), Handbook on Globalization and Higher Education, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Hervás-Oliver, José-Luis & Parrilli, Mario Davide & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Sempere-Ripoll, Francisca, 2021. "The drivers of SME innovation in the regions of the EU," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    15. Daniele Archibugi & Rinaldo Evangelista & Antonio Vezzani, 2021. "Centripetal and centrifugal forces in technological activities: linking regional innovation performances to EU Science & Technology policies," Working Papers 47, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Jan 2021.
    16. Arne Isaksen & Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl, 2016. "Innovation policies for regional structural change: Combining actor-based and system-based strategies," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_05, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    17. Bjørn Asheim, 2012. "The Changing Role of Learning Regions in the Globalizing Knowledge Economy: A Theoretical Re-examination," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 993-1004, June.
    18. McAdam, Maura & Miller, Kristel & McAdam, Rodney, 2016. "Situated regional university incubation: A multi-level stakeholder perspective," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 69-78.
    19. Rachael Gibson & Harald Bathelt, 2014. "Proximity relations and global knowledge flows: specialization and diffusion processes across capitalist varieties," Chapters, in: André Torre & Frédéric Wallet (ed.), Regional Development and Proximity Relations, chapter 9, pages 291-314, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Callum Wilkie, 2018. "Strategies of gain and strategies of waste: What determines the success of development intervention?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1826, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2018.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joiaen:v:6:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1186_s13731-017-0068-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.