Norwegian Innovation and Industrial Structure: Insiders and Outsiders?

Abstract

We examine the hypothesis that the Norwegian innovation system is locked-in to a specialization pattern of scale dependent, resource intensive industries, in which innovation depends mainly on the in-house activities of (a few) large firms. To this extent, we employ a sectoral empirical analysis using data on industrial dynamics and innovation in the Norwegian economy. Our results indicate that although the Norwegian economy has parts that are resourceand scale dependent, and also sectors in which the market structure is inert and concentrated, these characteristics are not systematically related to the level and nature of innovation activities. Our results indicate that innovation in Norway takes place in two main regimes: a highintensive and a low-intensive regime. This is not correlated systematically with industrial dynamics.