0000000000246446
AUTHOR
James Karlsen
showing 14 related works from this author
Unfolding the relationship between resilient firms and the region
2017
ABSTRACTThis research explores organizational resilience in four manufacturing firms in four different regions of Norway. While regional resilience has gained attention in research, there have been few studies with a micro-level focus, investigating firms and their distinctive features of resilience. We chose a qualitative multiple-case study approach and employed a critical incident technique to study resilience in selected firms that had experienced external shocks and shifts in regard to changing markets, globalization and advances in technology. Each, however, had managed to continually develop resilience capacity over time. Our framework considered three dimensions of organizational re…
Moving context from the background to the forefront of policy learning: Reflections on a case in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country
2016
The article focuses on policy learning processes with the aim of sharing knowledge about how policy learning happens. In doing this, it considers conflict as a natural process in policy learning and proposes action research as a possible strategy to address it. By reflecting on a long-term action research process in the province of Gipuzkoa (Basque Country, Spain), the article proposes a change of focus in assessing the role of context. If we assume that policy learning is oriented towards changing the context, then context plays a more complex and important role than it is usually given in theory. At the core of this argument is the understanding that the cognitive frameworks of policy ma…
Think tanks for a new generation of regional innovation policies
2021
Regional innovation policy, and related research, are being pressurized to transform by today’s grand societal challenges. Our paper acknowledges the efforts of authors in this field to address thi...
Policy learning in regions : the potential of co-generative research methodologies to help responsible innovation
2020
Author´s submitted manuscript. This is a draft chapter. The final version is available in Regions and Innovation Policies in Europe: Learning from the Margins edited by M. González-López & B. T. Asheim, published in 2020, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd https://doi.org/10.4337/9781789904161.00008. The material cannot be used for any other purpose without further permission of the publisher, and is for private use only.
Modes of innovation and differentiated responses to globalisation - a case study of innovation modes in the Agder region, Norway
2011
Published version of an article in the jounal: Journal of the Knowledge Economy. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13132-011-0060-9 The main argument of this paper is that firms and industries are dominated by different innovation modes and that they therefore respond differently to challenges of globalisation. The paper differentiates between three modes: science, technology and innovation (STI), doing, using and interacting (DUI) application mode and the DUI technological mode. These innovation modes are based on different dominant knowledge bases, modes of learning and external knowledge. What is the implication of these differences with regard to competing…
Can small regions construct regional advantages? The case of four Norwegian regions
2012
Accepted version of an article in the journal: European Urban and Regional Studies. Also availble from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0969776412439200 The conceptual framework of constructing regional advantage (CRA) is implicitly relevant for large, well-off regions that have strong regional innovation systems, a diversity of industrial sectors and resourceful firms that can partake in global knowledge networks. This paper discusses the extent to which small regions, with less developed regional innovation systems, may also constitute the basis for developing regional advantage. Four cases of regional industries dominated by different innovation modes make up the empirical tes…
Strategic agency and institutional change
2017
Strategic agency and institutional change: investigating the role of universities in regional innovation systems (RISs). Regional Studies. Past analyses rooted in the thick description of regions successful in constructing regional innovation systems have given way to analyses more focused on the intentionality in these processes, and how actors in regions with their own wider networks can shape these high-level changes in regional fortunes. As part of this, place-based leadership has emerged as a promising concept to restore both agency and territory to these discussions, but it remains under-theorized in key areas. This paper contributes to these debates by arguing that there remains a re…
Regional Innovation System as a Framework for the Co-generation of Policy: An Action Research Approach
2018
Policy makers in regional development often relate their policies to frameworks proposed by researchers in the field. Of these frameworks, the regional innovation system (RIS) has been one of the most influential. This chapter focuses on the difficulties that arise when policy makers try to enact the RIS and other related frameworks and proposes action research—and, more specifically, a co-generative approach—to help face these challenges. The starting point for this proposal is an analysis of the differences and similarities between the observer and co-generative research approaches. Most research in this field has been developed with researchers positioned as outside observers, and co-gen…
Power, Institutions, and Periphery: What Can a Small University College Do?
2018
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are seen as key sources for innovation, global competitiveness, and regional development despite their location. The chapter discusses the institutionalised practice of an HEI located in a peripheral region with many regional development challenges. The main finding is that the HEI acted as a powerful political actor in the region but within the educational path. It was taken for granted that the HEI should not engage in regional development efforts by the HEI and regional actors in the region. This behaviour is explained as a result of an institutional control mechanism that governs how HEI should practise their role.
Does a Responsible University Need a Third Mission?
2019
AbstractThere are different positions in the discourse about how the university can contribute to innovation, economic development and regional development. One position regards regional development as a new third mission. Another position argues for the integration of the regional role within the first two roles, which are teaching and research. Both positions are normative and rest on the assumption that the university is a homogeneous organisation and that transforming the role of the university into a regional development role is simple. However, if the university is a loosely coupled organisation, the transformation is more challenging. This chapter addresses this organisational challe…
What Is Regional in Regional Clusters? The Case of the Globally Oriented Oil and Gas Cluster in Agder, Norway
2012
This paper focuses on the question to what extent knowledge sources in regional clusters stimulate the innovation activity of cluster firms. In doing so we contribute to the literature by combining two analytical approaches: by (1) distinguishing firms dominated by different innovation modes; and (2) differentiating between inter-organizational linkages and open knowledge environments as two distinct knowledge sources. Based on data from the Agder equipment supplier industry we demonstrate that mobility of labour, local buzz and inter-organizational linkages are key regional knowledge sources, but clearly more so for some types of firms than others.
The challenge of constructing regional advantages in peripheral areas: The case of marine biotechnology in Tromsø, Norway
2011
The idea of constructing regional advantage (CRA) has recently been emphasized by scholars as a new way for firms to gain competitiveness in a globalizing learning economy. The rationale behind the idea is that advantages in a regional industry can be constructed by proactive public–private partnership. This article uses, and examines the relevance of, the CRA framework in analysing the development and functioning of the marine biotechnology industry in Tromso, which is a fairly peripheral region in Norway. Despite the fact that much effort has been put into education and R&D at the University of Tromso and related research institutes, and the fact that many public policy tools have intende…
Competitive firms in thin regions in Norway: The importance of workplace learning
2015
The article departs from empirical studies of two competitive firms in an organisationally thin region in Norway. The main question in the article is how these firms have achieved global competitiveness. The article focuses its inquiry on how the firms organise their innovation activity, giving special attention to the firms' organisational learning and absorptive capacity. It is found that find that workplace learning enables the firms to utilise knowledge in uncommon ways. The learning rests on specific organisational traits in the firms, such as broad participation, long-term on-the-job training, the use of practice-based knowledge in innovation projects, and links to national and global…
The contribution of action research to policy learning: The case of Gipuzkoa Sarean
2014
Published version of an article in the journal: International Journal of Action Research. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1688/IJAR-2014-02-Karlsen This article is about a six year policy learning process named Gipuzkoa Sarean in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa. In the article we reflect on how action research contributed to policy learning. The process consists of three stages: 2009-2011: Initiation of the project and development of a work method; 2011-2013: Government learning and organisational change; 2013-2014: Social learning and the shift to a new approach to territorial development. For each stage we describe the background and main goal of the research pr…