IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imd/wpaper/wp2009-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Innovating in the periphery: Firms, values, and innovation in Southwest Norway

Author

Listed:

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Rune Dahl Fitjar & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2009. "Innovating in the periphery: Firms, values, and innovation in Southwest Norway," Working Papers 2009-13, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales.
    • Handle: RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2009-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.imdea.org/pdf/imdea-wp2009-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    innovation; institutions; distance; trust; open-mindedness; periphery; Norway;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:imd:wpaper:wp2009-13. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: IMDEA RePEc Maintainer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/icimdes.html .

    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.