Innovation and transformation in the Swedish manufacturing sector, 1970-2007

This doctoral thesis investigates changes in the volume and character of Swedish manufacturing sector innovation output between 1970 and 2007, a time span composed of both extended periods of relative prosperity and decline. More specifically, it examines whether changes in the number of innovations, the character of the innovating firms, and the distribution of innovations across industries are generally associated with any such period. Significant differences in received accounts of structural transformation in the Swedish manufacturing sector motivate the study. A newly compiled database containing observations of nearly 4000 innovations is explored. It is found that innovation output is at its greatest during the economically stagnant period running from 1975 and until the first years of the 19 80s. Furthermore, innovations produced in this period are more novel than those of any other period. Innovation output observed in the relatively prosperous period 1994-2007 is meager and generally less novel. There is a marked increase in small firm innovation; from the early 1980s onwards, small firms are the most important source of innovation. The increase cuts through the entire period and stands in contrast with the economically important role traditionally considered to be played by large firms in the Swedish economy. Innovation output is found to shift from being primarily achieved in the capital goods sector to being subsequently developed in fields such as instruments, telecom products, and software. With regard to the revolutionary growth of microelectronics characterizing the period, the Swedish manufacturing sector is found to be competent in implementing such technology and to be primarily a receiver rather than a supplier of microelectronic components

Trans-boundary air pollution in Windsor, Ontario (Canada)

AbstractWindsor (Ontario) is located on the Canada-US border. Some believe that the heavy industrial facilities such as power generation and automobile production in the neighbouring regions of US greatly affect Windsor's air quality. This study investigates the frequency of air mass exchange between Windsor and the neighbouring US states. Two-day (48-hr) and one-day (24-hr) back trajectories were run using the Hybrid Single-Particle Langrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. Windsor Airport (42.27o N, 82.96o W) was the starting point. The model resolution was three days a week. Two calendar years, 2008 and 2009, were modeled thus seasonal and inter-annual variations could be observed. It was found that the fraction of air mass parallel to the border is small. When considering the 48-hr trajectories on an annual basis, 53-55% of air masses arriving Windsor were from the US, whereas the 24-hr trajectories showed a much higher percentage (81-82%). The inter-annual variability between 2008 and 2009 was small. In both years, winter had higher frequency of US to Canada transport than Canada to US. In the other three seasons (spring, summer and fall), one year had more frequent US to Canada transport while the other year had less. It was concluded that overall the US-Canada transport had a higher frequency. However, this alone is inadequate to support the claim of air masses coming from US greatly affect Windsor air quality. Further analyses using state and province wide emission densities and ambient concentrations were conducted for a two-week period during each year to quantitatively assess the trans-boundary movement of air pollutants. Statistical analyses showed no consistent, significant correlations between the travel path of the air mass prior to arrival and the measured NO2 or PM2.5 concentrations at the receptor

The influence of uncertainty on venture capital investments in renewable energy technology : an exploratory study

The rate at which the climate is changing due to the exploitation of fossil fuel suggests that there is great emergency to speed up the development, commercialization, and diffusion of renewable energy technologies. Firms based on new technology (NTBFs) are widely recognized as propulsive in bringing new technologies to the market. Intriguingly, recurring studies report on severe difficulties experienced by NTBFs as regards getting access to sufficient growth capital. The traditional capital market’s failure to provide finance has made venture capital a sine qua non of innovation in such firms. Being a lever of innovation and thus central to the issue of climate change, better understanding of what influences venture capital investments in renewable energy technologies is crucial. Equity investing is an uncertain undertaking. This thesis aims at investigating what sources of uncertainty are relevant in relation to investments in renewable energy technologies. Telephone interviews were conducted with nine Swedish venture capital firms. It was found that technological uncertainty, market adoption/consumer uncertainty, competitive uncertainty and political, or regulatory, uncertainty were influential. Based on these results this thesis offers a discussion of implications for venture capital firms, technology developers and other actors in the innovation system. The discussion centers on the importance of networking. Key words: venture capital, renewable energy technology, uncertaint

Innovation and industrial renewal in Sweden, 1970–2007

This study explores the question of whether the Swedish innovation output of the 1970s and 1980s (and the following decades) indicates structural lock-in or renewal. It is motivated by inconsistent explanations in the current literature about the relation between the economic slowdown and subsequent industrial renewal, as well as a lack of research focusing, in this context, on the primary driver of economic growth and structural change: innovation. By observing the number and type of innovations as they hit the market, the data in this paper tell a real time story about micro level innovation activity during the time that the economic crisis unfolds. The analysis considers Swedish innovation output between 1970 and 2007, characterising the number of significant innovations, their novelty, and their origin (including size of firm and industry sector). Three central findings emerge, defined by both the time period and the character of innovations. First, the magnitude of innovation activity peaks in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Second, starting in the late 1970s, small firms begin to outperform large firms in terms of both innovation quantity and quality (i.e. world market novelties). Third, the 1980s saw a distinct shift in the industrial origin of innovations, with software and telecom becoming the leaders in innovation output. The findings suggest that the observed industrial renewal is more nuanced than what has emerged from previous research

Hot och respons. En uppsats om fronten mot framtiden med särskilt fokus på klimathotet.

Klimatet uppmärksammas under 2000-talet på ett sätt som saknar motstycke i historien. Klimatförändringarnas omfattning och konsekvenser undersöks och debatteras. Frågan befinner sig högt upp på den politiska agendan och spelar en allt viktigare roll i världsekonomin. Behovet av en respons är överhängande. FoU har en viktig roll att spela i framtagandet av adekvata innovationer för att respondera och bromsa den negativa utvecklingen. Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att genom att använda hot som analytiskt begrepp analysera hur dess karaktär påverkar möjligheten att åstadkomma en motreaktion. Uppsatsens teoretiska analys och de historiska exempel som presenteras leder fram till och underbygger en hypotes om ett samband mellan typen av hot och effektiviteten med vilken olika incitamentsystem kan allokera investeringar till FoU. Uppsatsen både startar och landar i klimathotet, slutsatsen är att det på grund av variationen vad gäller hotets art finns anledning att se över vilka incitamentsystem som brukas för att stimulera framtagandet av en adekvat respons

Mjölk, någon? -en uppsats om kunskap, kausalitet och identitet

Hur blir vetenskapligt producerad kunskap legitimerad? Vilken betydelse har vetenskapligt säkerställd kunskap för människans möjligheter att konstruera sin identitet? Som svar på dessa frågor presenteras en modell som belyser nödvändigheten av social legitimering av vetenskapligt producerad kunskap, vidare företas en fördjupad analys av denna legitimeringsprocess och dess betydelse för hur människan konstruerar sin identitet. För att belysa och visa på giltigheten i den modell, de argument och begrepp som presenteras i teoridelen följer en fallstudie som behandlar ett så vardagligt ting som mat. Genom att generellt undersöka vilken betydelse maten har i våra liv och specifikt vilken betydelse mjölken har får man en inblick i betydelsen av vetenskapligt säkerställd kunskap rörande livsmedel

University–industry collaboration : A literature review and synthesis

This study applies a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis to identify and synthesize key factors that enable collaborative innovation between industry and universities. Using a keyword search in the Web of Science database, the review identified 40 papers that were frequently cited on the topic. Results were summarized into seven main themes or central factors stimulating collaborative innovation: resources, university organization, boundary-spanning functions, collaborative experience, culture, status centrality and environmental context. This article elaborates on these ‘enabling factors’ and uses them to summarize a number of results from the reviewed studies regarding facilitators of collaborative innovation. The discussion focuses on how these factors relate and the extent to which they are amenable to policy intervention

From thematic to organizational prioritization : The challenges of implementing RDI priorities

While priority setting for research, development and innovation (RDI) traditionally focuses on which thematic areas should be supported, less is known about how such goals are implemented on the agency level. Key challenges are how to translate broad priorities into programs and projects, how to govern the knowledge base, and how to handle organizational tensions during implementation. Many of these challenges must be addressed by 'street-level' administrators and agency experts during implementation. We take these agency challenges to be of central concern for RDI policy implementation, and propose a process perspective on priority setting. We apply this perspective to a case study of the Swedish Energy Agency and highlight a number of insights such as the tension between existing organizational capabilities and new goals for research and innovation. We argue that these insights are particularly relevant to other research funders with a sectoral mandate, for example, health, defense, or agriculture

The Swedish industrial support program of the 1970s revisited

The economy-wide dynamic cost-benefit study of the Swedish industrial subsidy program 1976 through 1984 (Carlsson et al. Res Policy 10(43):336–354 1981; Carlsson J Ind Econ 32(1):9–14, 1983a, b) is revisited in light of later economic development. Since the Swedish Micro to Macro model (Eliasson Am Econ Rev 67(1):277–281 1977a, 2017a) was used for quantification, this article is both (1) a study on the calibration of high dimensional micro-based and nonlinear economic systems models, and (2) a post inquiry into the empirical credibility of the cost-benefit calculations performed. We find that the Micro-based Macro model represents the minimum of detailed resolution necessary for the dynamic cost benefit calculations of the micro interventions in the Swedish economy we study. Even though the increased model complexity meant significant parameter calibration difficulties, a thoroughly researched model specification with exactly defined policy interfaces (with the markets of the economy) should take priority over parameter estimation problems, and always be preferred to estimating the parameters of a wrongly specified model perfectly. The oil price shocks of the 1970s caused radical market disorder in the western economies, bankrupting some 35% of Swedish manufacturing and threatening the Swedish government with massive unemployment. We confirm the earlier results that the government choice of a radical employment rescue policy came at enormous social cost in the form of economic stagnation, and still did not prevent the unemployment of the rest of OECD Europe from hitting Sweden a decade later, and persisting well into the next millennium. According to an alternative simulated policy scenario on the model, had the subsidies been replaced with a general lowering of the payroll tax of the same magnitude and the consequent increase in unemployment taken immediately during 1976–1980, production structures would have been radically and rapidly reorganized, normal employment would have been rapidly restored, and neither the stagnation nor the radical increase in unemployment of the early 1990s would have occurred. In retrospect we see no reason to worry about the empirical credibility of this computed dynamic trade off between Keynesian demand and Schumpeterian supply effects (caused by resource reallocations and endogenous structural change due to the price change), as we did then. We conclude with certainty that this trade-off would not even have been discovered as a possibility had we used a traditional model that did not embody these micro-macro linkages