Arne Isaksen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1474911 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arne Isaksen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arne |
| FAMILY NAME | Isaksen |
| SIGNATURE | ISAKSEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Agder |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0456-3092 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 504 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Cluster emergence, development and organisation in contrasting institutional settings: Insights from United Kingdom and Norway
This article explores the intersection of cluster theory and the varieties of capitalism (VOC) literature to understand how industry clusters emerge, develop and organise innovation activities in contrasting institutional settings. VOC theory suggests that cluster development and innovation operations tend to differ in liberal market economies (LMEs) and coordinated market economies (CMEs). In LMEs, clusters tend to form spontaneously, while in C…
Exploring regional industrial culture. Changing industrial culture and human agency in a Norwegian region
This paper explores the role that industrial culture and human agency play in regional industrial development. It makes three contributions. First, it discusses and explores the concept of regional industrial culture and examines its relevance for regional industrial development. Second, it identifies and investigates two main forms of regional industrial culture: one self-interest dominated type and one community dominated type. Third, the paper…
Rethinking regional economic resilience: Preconditions and processes shaping transformative resilience
The unpredictable impacts of sudden shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic or the current energy crisis accelerated by the Russia-Ukraine war have led to a renewed interest in regional economic resilience. Much of the literature focuses attention on how regional economies and industries could bounce back, that is, how they could return to their pre-shock conditions. Other scholars have proposed to construe resilience as bouncing forward to …
Regional innovation systems in an era of grand societal challenges: Reorientation versus transformation
This editorial seeks to contribute to a critical rethinking of the regional innovation system (RIS) framework and to examine what kind of ‘reinvention’ of regional innovation policy is needed in the era of grand societal challenges. The concept of challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CoRISs) is employed to cast light on how RISs can be reconfigured in response to societal challenges. Based on the articles in this issue, the editorial d…
Policy to support digitalisation of industries in various regional settings: A conceptual discussion
The purpose of the article is to analyse regions’ varying preconditions for digitalisation of industry and, on that basis, discuss regionally tailored policy strategies to stimulate digitalisation. Building on both regional innovation system and asset modification approaches, the authors suggest a theoretical framework that identifies regions’ potential for digitalisation from their stock of relevant assets at the firm and innovation system level…
Cluster development and regional industrial restructuring: Agency and asset modification
The paper presents a novel theoretical framework to analyse the emergence and growth of industrial clusters. The framework focuses on the role of change agency for the modification of assets that initiate cluster development, which may also impact regional industrial restructuring. The authors distinguish between agency and assets at firm level and regional level, and argue that alignment of assets at the two levels may influence cluster developm…
Geography in times of crisis and turbulence
More importantly, these days, there seems to be the kind of crises and turbulence that we have to deal with as citizens of a world that changes rapidly, with consequences that call upon us as scholars in ways we did not conceive of as urgent until we found ourselves in the midst of them. As such, the crises that face us as academics, paradoxically serve to alleviate the minor and paradigmatic crises pertaining to our disciplines, as we are consta…
The emergence of new industries at the regional level: Alignment of Organizational and Regional Industrial Culture
This article provides insights into how and where new industries emerge and grow through theoretical reasoning and the advancement of relevant arguments through empirical examples from industry emergence in two Norwegian regions: the establishment of the boatbuilding and the electronics industry in Arendal; and the cancer medicine and educational technology industry in Oslo. The article focuses on culture as an important asset for new industry em…
Unravelling green regional industrial path development: Regional preconditions, asset modification and agency
Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development
Path creation is a key concept in economic geography. So far, particularly scholars within evolutionary economic geography have pioneered research on this topic. This paper critically discusses their work and proposes a broader understanding of how new economic activities emerge in regions, which is referred to here as ‘new regional industrial path development’. The paper develops a future research agenda, which stresses the need to develop a mul…
From success to failure, the disappearance of clusters: A study of a Norwegian boat-building cluster
The article analyses the decline and disappearance of regional clusters, with an empirical investigation of why a boat-building cluster in Norway failed after the 2008 financial crisis. The article combines insights into lock-in processes that take place at the cluster and regional innovation system level with lock-in processes at the entrepreneur and firm level. The latter level focuses on the development of local conventions of how production a…
Regional industrial restructuring resulting from individual and system agency
The article discusses mechanisms and policy that stimulate regional economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is conceptualised through the notion of path development. The article distinguishes four types of path development: the extension and upgrading of existing regional industries are two types, diversification of existing industries and the creation of new industry paths are the two others and more substantial path developments. A main …
Exogenous sources of regional industrial change: Attraction and absorption of non-local knowledge for new path development
The role of exogenous sources of new path development has been underplayed in the literature on regional industrial change so far. The aim of this article is to explore in a conceptual way under which conditions and in what ways non-local knowledge can lead to new path development in different regional innovation systems (RISs). We distinguish between organizationally thick and diversified RISs, thick and specialized RISs and thin RISs and argue …
Exogenously Led and Policy-Supported New Path Development in Peripheral Regions: Analytical and Synthetic Routes
The aim of this article is to explore how new industrial paths emerge and grow in peripheral regional economies. Current conceptualizations of regional path development are based on experiences from core regions and fail to provide satisfactory theoretical explanations of new path-creating activities in peripheral areas. Our conceptual approach combines the notions of path development and knowledge bases, enabling us to distinguish between an ana…
Industrial development in thin regions: Trapped in path extension
Recent theorizing of path dependence supplements the traditional view of regional path-dependent industrial development characterized by lock-in effects with paths dealing with change, that is, path renewal and path creation. Few studies, however, examine why different types of regions experience diverse path-dependent development. This article examines why organizationally thin regions are much less likely to achieve path renewal and path creati…
Building national and regional innovation systems: Institutions for economic development – By Jorge Niosi
Can small regions construct regional advantages? The case of four Norwegian regions
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 …
Innovation by co-evolution in natural resource industries: The Norwegian experience
One Size Fits All? Applying the Creative Class Thesis onto a Nordic Context
The creative class thesis put forward by Florida [(2002a) The Rise of the Creative Class and How it's transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books)] has in recent years been subject to vivid debate and criticism. This article applies the creative class thesis onto a Nordic context in order to examine whether Florida's theory proves fruitful in a context different from the US. Based on qualitative data, the paper …
Nordic City Regions in the Creative Class Debate—Putting the Creative Class Thesis to a Test
The Nordic countries have a quite different urban structure and social systems than the USA. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden may then constitute a critical test of the empirical reach of Richard Florida's much cited creative class thesis beyond its empirical basis in the USA. This paper employs comparative statistics to examine the importance of the quality of place in attracting members of the creative class to Nordic city regions, and it an…
Regions, networks and innovative performance: The case of knowledge-intensive industries in Norway
Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and…
Innovation Dynamics of Global Competitive Regional Clusters: The Case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise
Isaksen A. Innovation dynamics of global competitive regional clusters: the case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise, Regional Studies. This paper analyses the innovation dynamics in six regional clusters that have been appointed as Norwegian Centres of Expertise and have been assessed as some of the most internationally competitive regional clusters in Norway. The most consistent finding concerns the great importance of strong Norwegian innova…
New perspectives on knowledge‐intensive services and innovation
Knowledge‐intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge‐based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge‐intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge‐intensive business services) sector a…
Regional Innovation Systems: The Integration of Local ‘Sticky’ and Global ‘Ubiquitous’ Knowledge
Location, agglomeration and innovation: Towards regional innovation systems in Norway?
The theoretical part of the article examines the concept of regional innovation systems against the background of modern theories of innovation. The view of interactive learning as a fundamental aspect of the innovation process provides the ground for an interactive innovation model, which is greatly facilitated by geographical proximity and territorial agglomeration. The empirical part analyzes geographical variations in innovation activity in N…
Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development
Path creation is a key concept in economic geography. So far, particularly scholars within evolutionary economic geography have pioneered research on this topic. This paper critically discusses their work and proposes a broader understanding of how new economic activities emerge in regions, which is referred to here as ‘new regional industrial path development’. The paper develops a future research agenda, which stresses the need to develop a mul…
Unravelling green regional industrial path development: Regional preconditions, asset modification and agency
Exogenous sources of regional industrial change: Attraction and absorption of non-local knowledge for new path development
The role of exogenous sources of new path development has been underplayed in the literature on regional industrial change so far. The aim of this article is to explore in a conceptual way under which conditions and in what ways non-local knowledge can lead to new path development in different regional innovation systems (RISs). We distinguish between organizationally thick and diversified RISs, thick and specialized RISs and thin RISs and argue …
Industrial development in thin regions: Trapped in path extension
Recent theorizing of path dependence supplements the traditional view of regional path-dependent industrial development characterized by lock-in effects with paths dealing with change, that is, path renewal and path creation. Few studies, however, examine why different types of regions experience diverse path-dependent development. This article examines why organizationally thin regions are much less likely to achieve path renewal and path creati…
Regional industrial restructuring resulting from individual and system agency
The article discusses mechanisms and policy that stimulate regional economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is conceptualised through the notion of path development. The article distinguishes four types of path development: the extension and upgrading of existing regional industries are two types, diversification of existing industries and the creation of new industry paths are the two others and more substantial path developments. A main …
Exogenously Led and Policy-Supported New Path Development in Peripheral Regions: Analytical and Synthetic Routes
The aim of this article is to explore how new industrial paths emerge and grow in peripheral regional economies. Current conceptualizations of regional path development are based on experiences from core regions and fail to provide satisfactory theoretical explanations of new path-creating activities in peripheral areas. Our conceptual approach combines the notions of path development and knowledge bases, enabling us to distinguish between an ana…
Rethinking regional economic resilience: Preconditions and processes shaping transformative resilience
The unpredictable impacts of sudden shocks such as the current COVID-19 pandemic or the current energy crisis accelerated by the Russia-Ukraine war have led to a renewed interest in regional economic resilience. Much of the literature focuses attention on how regional economies and industries could bounce back, that is, how they could return to their pre-shock conditions. Other scholars have proposed to construe resilience as bouncing forward to …
Innovation by co-evolution in natural resource industries: The Norwegian experience
Innovation Dynamics of Global Competitive Regional Clusters: The Case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise
Isaksen A. Innovation dynamics of global competitive regional clusters: the case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise, Regional Studies. This paper analyses the innovation dynamics in six regional clusters that have been appointed as Norwegian Centres of Expertise and have been assessed as some of the most internationally competitive regional clusters in Norway. The most consistent finding concerns the great importance of strong Norwegian innova…
Regions, networks and innovative performance: The case of knowledge-intensive industries in Norway
Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and…
New perspectives on knowledge‐intensive services and innovation
Knowledge‐intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge‐based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge‐intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge‐intensive business services) sector a…
Can small regions construct regional advantages? The case of four Norwegian regions
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 …
The emergence of new industries at the regional level: Alignment of Organizational and Regional Industrial Culture
This article provides insights into how and where new industries emerge and grow through theoretical reasoning and the advancement of relevant arguments through empirical examples from industry emergence in two Norwegian regions: the establishment of the boatbuilding and the electronics industry in Arendal; and the cancer medicine and educational technology industry in Oslo. The article focuses on culture as an important asset for new industry em…
New Industrial Spaces and Industrial Districts in Norway: Productive Concepts in Explaining Regional Development
The article discusses whether the two distinctive con cepts of new industrial spaces and industrial districts are useful in explaining specific parts of regional indus trial development since about 1970. First, the two concepts are clarified and delimited, both in relation to each other and to some other closely linked con cepts. Second, the usefulness of the concepts is dis cussed with respect to three case studies. The cases are well-known indu…
From success to failure, the disappearance of clusters: A study of a Norwegian boat-building cluster
The article analyses the decline and disappearance of regional clusters, with an empirical investigation of why a boat-building cluster in Norway failed after the 2008 financial crisis. The article combines insights into lock-in processes that take place at the cluster and regional innovation system level with lock-in processes at the entrepreneur and firm level. The latter level focuses on the development of local conventions of how production a…
New Industrial Spaces and Industrial Districts in Norway: Productive Concepts in Explaining Regional Development
The article discusses whether the two distinctive con cepts of new industrial spaces and industrial districts are useful in explaining specific parts of regional indus trial development since about 1970. First, the two concepts are clarified and delimited, both in relation to each other and to some other closely linked con cepts. Second, the usefulness of the concepts is dis cussed with respect to three case studies. The cases are well-known indu…
Towards increased regional specialization? The quantitative importance of new industrial spaces in Norway, 1970– 1990
(1996). Towards increased regional specialization? The quantitative importance of new industrial spaces in Norway, 1970– 1990. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography: Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 113-123.
Location, agglomeration and innovation: Towards regional innovation systems in Norway?
The theoretical part of the article examines the concept of regional innovation systems against the background of modern theories of innovation. The view of interactive learning as a fundamental aspect of the innovation process provides the ground for an interactive innovation model, which is greatly facilitated by geographical proximity and territorial agglomeration. The empirical part analyzes geographical variations in innovation activity in N…
Regional Innovation Systems: The Integration of Local ‘Sticky’ and Global ‘Ubiquitous’ Knowledge
New perspectives on knowledge‐intensive services and innovation
Knowledge‐intensive services are seen to have an increased importance for learning and innovation activity in a more knowledge‐based economy. This paper compares the relevance of two complementary approaches as analytical tools in studying the exchange of knowledge‐intensive services in innovation processes. The first approach focuses on the importance of expert knowledge from companies in the KIBS (knowledge‐intensive business services) sector a…
Innovation Dynamics of Global Competitive Regional Clusters: The Case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise
Isaksen A. Innovation dynamics of global competitive regional clusters: the case of the Norwegian Centres of Expertise, Regional Studies. This paper analyses the innovation dynamics in six regional clusters that have been appointed as Norwegian Centres of Expertise and have been assessed as some of the most internationally competitive regional clusters in Norway. The most consistent finding concerns the great importance of strong Norwegian innova…
One Size Fits All? Applying the Creative Class Thesis onto a Nordic Context
The creative class thesis put forward by Florida [(2002a) The Rise of the Creative Class and How it's transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (New York: Basic Books)] has in recent years been subject to vivid debate and criticism. This article applies the creative class thesis onto a Nordic context in order to examine whether Florida's theory proves fruitful in a context different from the US. Based on qualitative data, the paper …
Nordic City Regions in the Creative Class Debate—Putting the Creative Class Thesis to a Test
The Nordic countries have a quite different urban structure and social systems than the USA. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden may then constitute a critical test of the empirical reach of Richard Florida's much cited creative class thesis beyond its empirical basis in the USA. This paper employs comparative statistics to examine the importance of the quality of place in attracting members of the creative class to Nordic city regions, and it an…
Regions, networks and innovative performance: The case of knowledge-intensive industries in Norway
Many recent studies maintain that regional characteristics influence the innovative performances, innovation processes and innovation patterns of firms. Based on a representative sample of knowledge-intensive firms in Norway, this paper analyses the innovation output, innovation partners, knowledge sources, and localization of sources and partners for knowledge-intensive firms in three types of region: large urban regions, small urban regions and…
Innovation by co-evolution in natural resource industries: The Norwegian experience
Building national and regional innovation systems: Institutions for economic development – By Jorge Niosi
Can small regions construct regional advantages? The case of four Norwegian regions
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 …
Industrial development in thin regions: Trapped in path extension
Recent theorizing of path dependence supplements the traditional view of regional path-dependent industrial development characterized by lock-in effects with paths dealing with change, that is, path renewal and path creation. Few studies, however, examine why different types of regions experience diverse path-dependent development. This article examines why organizationally thin regions are much less likely to achieve path renewal and path creati…
Exogenous sources of regional industrial change: Attraction and absorption of non-local knowledge for new path development
The role of exogenous sources of new path development has been underplayed in the literature on regional industrial change so far. The aim of this article is to explore in a conceptual way under which conditions and in what ways non-local knowledge can lead to new path development in different regional innovation systems (RISs). We distinguish between organizationally thick and diversified RISs, thick and specialized RISs and thin RISs and argue …
Exogenously Led and Policy-Supported New Path Development in Peripheral Regions: Analytical and Synthetic Routes
The aim of this article is to explore how new industrial paths emerge and grow in peripheral regional economies. Current conceptualizations of regional path development are based on experiences from core regions and fail to provide satisfactory theoretical explanations of new path-creating activities in peripheral areas. Our conceptual approach combines the notions of path development and knowledge bases, enabling us to distinguish between an ana…
From success to failure, the disappearance of clusters: A study of a Norwegian boat-building cluster
The article analyses the decline and disappearance of regional clusters, with an empirical investigation of why a boat-building cluster in Norway failed after the 2008 financial crisis. The article combines insights into lock-in processes that take place at the cluster and regional innovation system level with lock-in processes at the entrepreneur and firm level. The latter level focuses on the development of local conventions of how production a…
Regional industrial restructuring resulting from individual and system agency
The article discusses mechanisms and policy that stimulate regional economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is conceptualised through the notion of path development. The article distinguishes four types of path development: the extension and upgrading of existing regional industries are two types, diversification of existing industries and the creation of new industry paths are the two others and more substantial path developments. A main …
Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development
Path creation is a key concept in economic geography. So far, particularly scholars within evolutionary economic geography have pioneered research on this topic. This paper critically discusses their work and proposes a broader understanding of how new economic activities emerge in regions, which is referred to here as ‘new regional industrial path development’. The paper develops a future research agenda, which stresses the need to develop a mul…
Unravelling green regional industrial path development: Regional preconditions, asset modification and agency
Cluster development and regional industrial restructuring: Agency and asset modification
The paper presents a novel theoretical framework to analyse the emergence and growth of industrial clusters. The framework focuses on the role of change agency for the modification of assets that initiate cluster development, which may also impact regional industrial restructuring. The authors distinguish between agency and assets at firm level and regional level, and argue that alignment of assets at the two levels may influence cluster developm…
Geography in times of crisis and turbulence
More importantly, these days, there seems to be the kind of crises and turbulence that we have to deal with as citizens of a world that changes rapidly, with consequences that call upon us as scholars in ways we did not conceive of as urgent until we found ourselves in the midst of them. As such, the crises that face us as academics, paradoxically serve to alleviate the minor and paradigmatic crises pertaining to our disciplines, as we are consta…
The emergence of new industries at the regional level: Alignment of Organizational and Regional Industrial Culture
This article provides insights into how and where new industries emerge and grow through theoretical reasoning and the advancement of relevant arguments through empirical examples from industry emergence in two Norwegian regions: the establishment of the boatbuilding and the electronics industry in Arendal; and the cancer medicine and educational technology industry in Oslo. The article focuses on culture as an important asset for new industry em…
Regional innovation systems in an era of grand societal challenges: Reorientation versus transformation
This editorial seeks to contribute to a critical rethinking of the regional innovation system (RIS) framework and to examine what kind of ‘reinvention’ of regional innovation policy is needed in the era of grand societal challenges. The concept of challenge-oriented regional innovation systems (CoRISs) is employed to cast light on how RISs can be reconfigured in response to societal challenges. Based on the articles in this issue, the editorial d…
Policy to support digitalisation of industries in various regional settings: A conceptual discussion
The purpose of the article is to analyse regions’ varying preconditions for digitalisation of industry and, on that basis, discuss regionally tailored policy strategies to stimulate digitalisation. Building on both regional innovation system and asset modification approaches, the authors suggest a theoretical framework that identifies regions’ potential for digitalisation from their stock of relevant assets at the firm and innovation system level…
Exploring regional industrial culture. Changing industrial culture and human agency in a Norwegian region
This paper explores the role that industrial culture and human agency play in regional industrial development. It makes three contributions. First, it discusses and explores the concept of regional industrial culture and examines its relevance for regional industrial development. Second, it identifies and investigates two main forms of regional industrial culture: one self-interest dominated type and one community dominated type. Third, the paper…
Economic geography (20 works) · Economics (20 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Business (17 works) · Regional Development and Policy (17 works) · Regional science (17 works) · Geography (15 works) · Regional resilience and development (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Industrial organization (12 works)