IMP theory in light of process- and system theories

This paper compares and discusses IMP theory in relation to Process Theory and Systems Theory, and also relates it to the ANT. It contrasts and illuminates ontological and epistemological underpinnings, methodologies and theories while also throwing some light on their historical roots and mutual influences over time. It argues that IMP is representing a process based economic theoryof value creation that is rooted in a fundamental critique of main stream economic and marketing theory as well as in a deviation from the basic conceptions of the systems theories by which it was influenced in an early phase. From there the IMP developed more flexible analytical constructs that show more kinship with process thinking than with systems thinking. The IMP is also found to distinguish itself from both ANT and Systems Theory in maintaining a symmetrical and reciprocal conception of interaction where the others in different ways focus on the unification of an acting unit in relation to an external environment. This is a particular strength of IMP, but also a challenge that calls for further clarification of analytical concepts

Knowledge, Transparency and Power in Business Networks

This article explores into the relationship between food suppliers and supermarket-chain retailers in the concentrated and import protected Norwegian dairy market. It aims at developing and discussing analytical constructs to analyze “the dark side of networks” characteristics of such economic systems (Håkansson et al 2009). On the background of ongoing rivalry between the historic agrifood supply regime and the emerging integrated supermarket regime (Bush 2007, Konefal et al 2007), the paper presents and explores into three empirical sub-cases conceptualized as “power-games”. These are “The interdependent production-capacity game”, “The asymmetric mutual dependency game” and “The networked cost- and benefit distribution game”. The paper argues that to focus on power, knowledge and transparency is a useful approach to studies of transaction patterns and economic re-distribution effects across the interacting actors. It furthermore suggests that a potentially rewarding research route would be to move transaction patterns in complex interacted economies to the focus of further empirical investigation and theory development

Perspektiver for norsk jordbruksvaresektor

Rapporten diskuterer situasjonen for den norske jordbruksvaresektoren i et overordnet strategisk perspektiv. Perspektivet tar utgangspunkt i fire ulike fokus: 1) Den internasjonale ny-liberale transformasjonen av økonomiske styringsregimer, 2) Den handelspolitiske situasjonen, 3) Strukturutviklingen innenfor EUs jordbruksvaresektor og 4) Den makro-økonomiske utviklingen i Norge relativt til våre naboland. Utgangspunktet for analysen er data som viser at prisforskjellene mellom Norge og våre EU-naboland har økt med 4-5% i gjennomsnitt per år siden 1994 og at effekten av momsreduksjonen i 2001 derfor vil være utlignet i løpet av 2 år med denne utviklingen. Analysen viser at presset på den norske matsektoren intensiveres fra flere kanter samtidig. Etter at en rekke andre områder av økonomien har gjennomløpet vesentlige regulatoriske reformer i kjølvannet av det ny-liberale skiftet i internasjonal økonomi, fremstår den norske jordbruksvaresektoren som stadig mer isolert med gradvis sviktende faglig og politiske legitimitet. Samtidig presser den samme bevegelsen seg fram gjennom WTO og EU som tilpasser sine regimer mot mer omfattende markedsintegrasjon og liberalisering av internasjonal handel med mat

Innovation management in networked economies

Business network research, service-dominant logic and service system thinking all reflect an interactional interpretation of value creation as the fundamental approach to understanding modern economies and business behavior. This paper aims at contributing to an integrative debate about innovation and value creation by analyzing innovation management challenges in relation to the interfaces between innovations and their environments in complex business landscapes. Any innovation may be seen as an entity within a multidimensional business landscape where relatedness, dynamism and variety are key dimensions. The innovation is typically positioned within some partly visible, partly invisible business landscape where it needs (1) to activate and stabilize a complex set of relationships between activities, resources and actors, (2) to systematically handle reactions to friction forces across these entities, and (3) to maintain and advance the necessary framing needed to coordinate interactions across all the involved and affected business resources, activities and actors. A general conclusion is that systematic managerial efforts appear to be the main driving force enacting and coordinating across these complex interfaces. In order for innovations to materialize, there is a critical need for some type of multi-functional, managerial network capable of recreating simplified and conceptual unity and a sense of direction while also managing the complexity, extendedness, ambiguity and multi-contextual challenges across the many complex interfaces

Næringsutvikling i norsk jordbruksvaresektor: Kommersialisering av teknologiske nisjer

Denne rapporten utgjør den teknologiorienterte delen av fase 2 av forskningsprosjektet ”Norsk jordbruksvaresektor: Strategi og forretningsutvikling mot år 2010”. Prosjektet ledes av førsteamanuensis Per Ingvar Olsen, Institutt for innovasjon og økonomisk organisering ved Handelshøyskolen BI. Rapporten diskuterer de utfordringene den norske jordbruksvaresektoren og de norske landbrukssamvirkeselskapene møter i arbeidet med å utvikle nye teknologiorienterte forretningsaktiviteter. Med utgangspunkt i en innovasjonsfaglig synsvinkel, og med ulike teoretiske bidrag, drøftes både innovasjonsstrategiske og organisatoriske utfordringer for industriselskapene og forsknings- og utviklingsinstitusjonene. I lys av teori om innovative foretak, innovasjonsdrevne økonomier og innovative nisjesatsingers utviklingsdynamikk diskuterer rapporten ulike potensielle teknologiske nisjesatsninger. Nisjesatsningene kan oppfattes som strategiske realopsjoner for foretakets ledelse og representerer i denne sammenhengen et økonomisk utviklingsprosjekt der det antatte framtidige inntektspotensialet er vesentlig relativt til utviklingskostnadene. Selskapet står fritt til å velge om prosjektet skal utvikles fram mot moden markeds-messig høste-fase, eller om ”realopsjonen” skal utløses gjennom salg i tidligere faser for å finansiere andre strategiske utviklings-, ekspansjons- eller restruktureringsprosesser. Rapporten belyser fire cases. Disse diskuteres som selvstendige forretnings-prosjekter der meningen er å bidra til å sikre framtiden for norsk mat-foredlings-industri gjennom en målrettet utdifferensi-erings-strategi. Casene som blir diskutert er: 1) Modellbedrift 2010 – Matforedling i lukkede celler, 2) Verdikjede-optimering; Enterprise Resource Management System, 3) Foredling av myse og 4) Teknologi for ferskvare-logistikk

Below the surface: how (seafood-)networks work - and how they change

Dette er et Open Access tidsskrift. Publisert versjon tilgjengelig: http://www.impjournal.org/The objective of this editorial is to provide a broader context for five papers presenting different aspects of seafood industries, distribution networks and markets. It also discusses in brief some of their propositional contributions to industrial network theories, focussing on three areas of discussion; the evolution of distribution networks (Gadde, 2010), the roles of network ideas in network change processes (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2002) and the character and dynamics of network interface management (Ford et al., 2003; Ford et al., 2010). The included papers present interesting theoretical contributions as well as detailed case illustrations to these three areas of theory discussions

Transforming Economies: The Case of the Norwegian Electricity Market Reform

The topic of this thesis is the shaping of modern economies, represented by a case-study of the Norwegian electricity market reform process. The essential questions raised are: “Why are industries and economies organized the way they are?” and “Why and how do they occasionally experience fairly radical transformations during which we come to see their organizational structures and associated behaviors in entirely different ways?” To answer these questions, the author has followed a radical “market-making” economic reform process through its many projects, processes and rivalries, from its roots in specific historical controversies through its major breakthrough and into a stabilized new economic system. A major argument through out the analysis is that economics as a scientific activity and -community plays a particularly important role in the re-shaping of economic systems. Large scale economic reforms are found to be dependent upon scientific and political powers and legitimacy which results from broad consensus within the relevant scientific communities. In order to make his point, the author presents and discusses various historical economic reform initiatives both within the Norwegian electricity sector, within other sectors of the economy and in other countries. He also presents elements of a broad process of reorientation within economics during the 1970s and follows these new conceptions up to the electricity market reform process in the late 1980s. The analysis tries to explain why Norway became a hotbed for market reform of the technically integrated and institutionally complex and locked-in electricity system, but also tries to extract medium range insights about economic reform processes and to discuss more general implications for other large scale economic reform projects as well as for economic theories about economic change - through a rethinking of some of the basics in economic thought

Below the surface: how (seafood-)networks work - and how they change

Dette er et Open Access tidsskrift. Publisert versjon tilgjengelig: http://www.impjournal.org/The objective of this editorial is to provide a broader context for five papers presenting different aspects of seafood industries, distribution networks and markets. It also discusses in brief some of their propositional contributions to industrial network theories, focussing on three areas of discussion; the evolution of distribution networks (Gadde, 2010), the roles of network ideas in network change processes (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2002) and the character and dynamics of network interface management (Ford et al., 2003; Ford et al., 2010). The included papers present interesting theoretical contributions as well as detailed case illustrations to these three areas of theory discussions

Jordbruksvaresektorens muligheter i sjømatbasert næringsutvikling

Hovedfokuset i dette prosjekt har vært å avdekke noen av de mulighetsrom som måtte finnes i krysningen mellom agro- og marin sektor. At det foreligger slike muligheter er for så vidt allerede vel forstått innenfor jordbruksvarenæringen og ikke minst innenfor forskningsmiljøer som er engasjert på tvers av de to næringene. Rapportens diskusjon representerer derfor mer en forlengelse og forsøk på utdypning, enn et forsøk på å reise nye strategiske diskusjoner. Vi konstaterer også at det allerede er etablert en rekke utviklingsaktiviteter og engasjementer som må kunne kategoriseres som ”agro-marine”. Utviklingen av en omfattende oppdrettsnæring i Norge har på flere viktige områder vært tuftet på kompetanser og ressurser hentet fra landbruket. Både fôrindustrien, genetikk/avls virksomheten og dyrehelse relaterte aktiviteter har spunnet ut av og delvis sammen igjen med tilsvarende aktiviteter på landbrukssiden. På sett og vis kan vi konstatere at sjømatsektoren er en forlengelse av landbruket vel så mye som en forlengelse av fiskerinæringen. Integrasjon mot sjømatsektorens mangeartede aktiviteter er én av flere mulige retninger for målrettede satsinger som kan bidra til å styrke bærekraftigheten i jordbruksvaresektorens fremtidige forretningsaktiviteter. Kanskje er det den viktigste når det gjelder å skape et grunnlag for offensive internasjonaliseringsstrategier fra norsk territorium. Vår studie indikerer en utstrakt bevissthet i begge næringer om muligheter som måtte ligge i samarbeid mellom dem. Behovet for slik integrasjon synes å oppleves som mer kritisk fra landbrukssiden. Samtidig indikerer studien at de to næringene har ulikt syn på hva samarbeidet bør fokusere på

Cognitive model of entrepreneurship and its reflection in education

This paper employs a novel method for assessing the appropriateness of different types of entrepreneurial education. With the help of cognitive mapping as a research tool, it visualizes entrepreneurship as a skill-and-attitude-demanding activity and compares a generated model of required entrepreneurship capabilities derived from cognitive mapping of engaged entrepreneurs, with mapping of three Scandinavian graduate programmes in entrepreneurship; at BI Norwegian School of Management, University of Oslo and Lund University. The cognitive maps are discussed and compared, focusing on elements that are under- or over-represented in the programmes when compared to our model. Based on our findings, a number of recommendations to people involved in creating and managing entrepreneurship programs are proposed: More attention to selection of students with appropriate attitudes, increased attention to certain under-represented topics (employee management, social networks, marketing and sales skills), more application of experiential and networking approaches, and increased focus on self-learning