Publiseringer

2023

Creative Continuation: An Alternative Perspective on Innovation and Society

Bokkapittel av Jon P. Knudsen

Sammendrag: Innovation has during the last decades become a buzzword in academia as well as in politics and business. The contemporary imperative is almost: innovate or perish. This also seems to be valid for all levels of social organization. In our Western tradition we tend to cherish deep changes, those that make us take the big step forward. In this chapter, I start from the literature on the dark side of innovations, picking up the analyses of how societies often tend to deteriorate institutionally and economically in the wake of radical changes, to lift forward the concept of creative continuation. This concept should be a key to the understanding of how societies can grow and thrive by putting to use their own immanent resources for economic and institutional development. Snapshots of three cases having succeeded by doing it “their way” are used to illustrate the argument.

Exploring regional industrial culture. Changing industrial culture and human agency in a Norwegian region

Forskningsartikkel av Emelie Langemyr Eriksen, Arne Isaksen & Jan Ole Rypestøl

Sammendrag: 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 discusses how firm – and system-level agencies can contribute to changing the dominant form of industrial culture at the regional level. The paper also provides a study of the regional industrial culture and change in the culture by key actors and agency in the Molde region in Western Norway since 2010. The empirical study demonstrates that the concepts of self-interest and community dominated culture and their link to firm – and system – level agency is relevant to capture and describe a regional industrial culture and potential changes within it. We found that the industrial cultural change in the Molde region could be regarded as mainly being the outcome of system level agency performed by both firm – and system – level actors.

Rethinking regional economic resilience: Preconditions and processes shaping transformative resilience

Forskningsartikkel av Michaela Trippl, Sebastian Fastenrath & Arne Isaksen

Sammendrag: 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 capture the mechanisms and processes that underpin positive adaptation and structural change in response to an acute crisis. In this article, we argue that both conceptualisations do not consider shocks and crises as a window of opportunity for regional economies to transform into a radically different and more desirable trajectory. We bring a new perspective into play, that is, transformative resilience which places shifts towards more sustainable pathways centre stage. This understanding of regional economic resilience acknowledges that a crisis may bring about permanent structural change and considers to what extent these transformations are to the benefit of society and the environment. This article seeks to identify in a conceptual way what factors and dynamics are vital for enhancing the transformative resilience of regions. To this end, we draw on recent insights from the debate on challenge-oriented regional innovation systems and elaborate on the role of pre-shock conditions and various core processes in building up regional transformative resilience.

Barriers to regional industrial development: An analysis of two specialised industrial regions in Norway

Forskningsartikkel av Maren Songe Eriksen & Maria Tønnessen Frivold

Sammendrag: The article aims to broaden the understanding of barriers to regional industrial development by focusing on the use and modification of the regional asset base. The authors employ Maskell & Malmberg’s categorisation of assets and they regard asset modification through change agency as a vital part of regional industrial development. They aim both to complement Grabher’s ‘lock-in’ approach and to provide a wider understanding of how barriers can be lowered through their empirical investigation of two specialised regions in Norway, Stavanger and Grenland. The authors address three research questions: What are historically created key regional assets in the two specialised regions? Do the assets function as support or barriers to green path development? If they are barriers, what are key agencies for lowering them? The findings demonstrate that the regional asset base functions both as support and as a barrier. To lower the barriers, both asset reuse and asset creation are deployed by actors in the region. The authors conclude that the article’s two main contributions are that with regard to the regional asset base, a relevant framework can identify possible barriers to regional industrial development, and the finding that barriers can be lowered through asset modification.

Weaving Sustainability: Asset Modification and Green Path Development in Norway`s Outdoor Textile Industry

Forskningsartikkel av Benjamin Hans Firlus, Roman Martin og Jan Ole Rypestøl

Forhold som påvirker kommuners beslutninger om bruk av innovasjoner i krisesituasjoner: En multicasestudie av fire sørlandskommuner

Rapport av Andrea Tomine Breilid & Rebecka Lauvrak Fredriksen

Sammendrag: I rapporten analyserer vi beslutninger om bruk av innovasjonen «Digital Hands» hos fire Sørlandskommuner under Covid-19 pandemien. Det overordnede forskerspørsmålet i rapporten er: «Hvilke forhold er med å påvirke en kommunes beslutninger om bruk av ny innovasjon i en krisesituasjon?». Vi utforsker dette spørsmålet først teoretisk, og teorien peker på tre hovedelementer som særlig viktige påvirkningsfaktorer for spørsmål om implementering av innovasjon. Dette er ytre forhold, innovasjonsbagasje og antagelser om fremtiden. Mens innovasjonsbagasjen inkluderer forhold som knyttes til historien, favner ‘ytre forhold’ eksterne forhold i nåtid. Til slutt fremhever teorien at også aktørenes forventninger om fremtiden vil påvirke beslutningen i dag.Våre empiriske undersøkelser viser at innovasjonsbagasjen har stor innflytelse og at særlig tilgjengelige ressurser og kapabiliteter påvirker beslutning. Vi finner blant annet at kommuner som har mange ressurser på plass har større sannsynlighet for å ta i bruk innovasjonen enn kommuner som er dårligere rigget. For kommuner som er dårligere rigget innebærer implementering av ny teknologi større ressursoppgraderinger. Dette er kostnadskrevende, og det skaper ofte krevende forstyrrelser i organisasjonen. Dermed øker risikoen som knyttes til en eventuell implementering. Vi finner også at organisering og styringsmåte, samt kunnskap og erfaring er forhold som trekkes frem som sentrale faktorer. Videre finner vi at ytre forhold som smittetrykk og opplevd ytre press i noen grad virker inn på beslutningen. I vår undersøkelse finner vi til slutt at antagelser om hvordan fremtiden vil bli i liten grad har påvirket de valg kommunene tok i dette tilfellet. Til slutt så vi at de to kommunene som valgte å ta i bruk innovasjonen, Farsund og Arendal kommune, satt igjen med viktig lærdom etter implementeringen. Farsund kommune har forankret kunnskapen i organisatoriske planer, mens Arendal kommune har mye av kunnskapen iboende i de ansatte som har jobbet med innovasjonen. Denne kunnskapen utgjør en oppgradering av innovasjonsbagasjen i disse kommunene og dette vil bidra til å påvirke fremtidige beslutninger.

2022

Koronapandemiens følger for grønn omstilling i norsk næringsliv

Popuærvitenskapelig artikkel i Forskningspolitikk av Stig-Erik Jakobsen, Jarle Aarstad, Lars Coenen, Arne Isaksen og Marte C.W. Solheim

Ingress: Grønn omstilling av norsk næringsliv bremset opp under koronapandemien. Både bedriftene og myndighetene hadde et hovedfokus på den daglige driften og det å komme seg gjennom krisen. Oljeskattepakken styrket en sektor som det er behov for å bygge ned for å kunne gjennomføre et grønt skifte.  Likevel er det mye som tyder på at aktørenes erfaringer fra pandemien styrker mulighetene for at man på sikt skal lykkes med en grønn omstilling.

Advancing the treatment of human agency in the analysis of regional economic development: Illustrated with three Norwegian cases

Forskningsartikkel av Markus Grillitsch, Bjørn Asheim, Arne Isaksen & Hjalti Nielsen

Sammendrag: Human agency has become a core topic in economic geography complementing traditional, structural approaches to explain regional development. This paper contributes firstly with a discussion of the theoretical and conceptual relationships between the agency of individuals, organizations, and systems. Secondly, it proposes a novel analytical framework for studying how human agency, combined with external changes affects regional economic development, and how regional structural preconditions and external changes explain the activation of change agency. Thirdly, the relevance of the framework is examined through comparative studies of about 20 years of industrial development in three Norwegian regions. This illuminates the importance of human agency in regional transformation processes, how regional preconditions influence but not determine the activation of change agency, as well as why and how regional policy plays a role in the emergence of change agency. Yet, future research needs to investigate the context conditions, which promote or hinder the activation of change agency, to trace change in economic activities over time and link it to causal mechanisms, and to pay attention to the unintended consequences of change agency in the longer-term.

Regional innovation systems in an era of grand societal challenges: reorientation versus transformation

Redaksjonell artikkel av Arne Isaksen, Michaela Trippl & Heike Mayer

Sammendrag: 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 distinguishes between two routes into which CoRISs could be developed: RIS reorientation strategies versus RIS transformation strategies. The first strategy assumes that at least some place-specific problems that are related to grand societal challenges can be tackled by use of existing assets, actors and institutions in historically grown RISs. RIS transformation strategies go a step further. They emphasize disruption and the strategic creation of new RIS elements. These include the inclusion of new innovative actors and actor groups, the implementations of institutional change, and also the disruption of old network linkages and the establishment of new ones. The editorial also reflects on the uptake of the two strategies in different spatial contexts as regional preconditions and challenges vary, which may demand different strategies and solutions on the regional level.

Think tanks for a new generation of regional innovation policies

Forskningsartikkel av Miren Larrea & James Karlsen

Sammendrag: 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 this pressure and addresses how new emergent framings of innovation policy can be operationalized in practice. We explore how co-generative research can help achieve this and share the case of a think tank in the Basque Country (Spain) which we describe as a hybrid space because of the way researchers and policy makers work together. The case is then used to revisit the methodology that researchers have used for co-generation (action research for territorial development) and to upgrade this methodology with a new concept, an action research think tank. The final discussion goes beyond action research and the case study, to look at how co-generation can improve learning processes between policy makers and researchers in the field.

Asset modification for regional industrial restructuring in times of economic crisis

Forskningsartikkel av Jan Ole Rypestøl, Nina Kyllingstad & Roman Martin

Sammendrag: Contributing to the literature on regional industrial restructuring, this article presents findings on how firms modify assets to overcome an economic crisis. Empirically, this article draws on interviews with 33 firms in the oil and gas (O&G) industry in Southern Norway, which experienced a major crisis caused by a fall in global oil prices in 2014–2015. We investigate how the crisis affected the asset base of the local firms, how they modified their firm-level assets to restructure, and how and to what extent they drew on system-level assets to overcome the crisis. We find that the firms experienced a substantial asset drain. Asset reuse was the prevailing mode of asset modification in the early phase of the crisis, while asset bridging through collaboration with other organizations became more important in the later phase of the crisis. With exception of the local university, system-level assets were of little relevance to the firms. The study shows that during crises firms benefit from well-aligned firm- and system-level assets and from a regional industrial milieu that supports inter-organizational collaboration.

New regional industrial path development and innovation networks in times of economic crisis

Forskningsartikkel av Jan Ole Rypestøl, Roman Martin & Nina Kyllingstad

Sammendrag: This paper presents novel research on how exogenous shocks and economic crises affect innovation, knowledge networks, and new path development in regions. Conceptually, we take a regional innovation systems perspective which views new path development as the outcome of innovation and knowledge exchange between firms and other actors, facilitated by a common institutional framework. Empirically, we draw on interviews and network data from the oil and gas industry in southern Norway. Following a long period of prosperity, the industry was hit by the oil price shock in 2014 and entered an economic crisis. The findings suggest that the shock triggered the firms to commit even more forcefully to innovation and to expand their knowledge networks geographically. To cope with the crisis, they applied a variety of strategies, which can be associated with different forms of path development. We draw conclusions for innovation policy in the context of exogenous shocks and crises.

Policy to support digitalisation of industries in various regional settings: A conceptual discussion

Forskningsartikkel av Arne Isaksen & Jan Ole Rypestøl

Sammendrag: 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. The analysis identifies four types of regions with different preconditions for supporting digitalisation of industries. This in turn provides the foundation for a discussion of the role of actor-based and system-based policy strategies to support digitalisation in each type of region. From the existing literature, the authors discuss empirical examples of digitalisation within each of the four types of regions but also highlight that individual regions need to tailor the portfolio of policy support within the identified strategy, as each region is structurally and institutionally unique.

2021

Action research as a methodology for the construction of territorial leadership

Bokkapittel av James Karlsen & Miren Larrea

Sammendrag: This chapter advances the discussions on leadership by proposing that action research contributes to, not only the analysis of territorial leadership, but also its construction. Action research requires the active participation of researchers and territorial actors in co-generative transformation processes that give shared leadership as a result. This approach invites researchers to explore their own agency in the construction of territorial leadership, which is an evolution in their research positionality from observer to active participant. Researchers cannot avoid influencing the social processes, such as the construction of regional innovation systems through territorial leadership. Action research provides frameworks and methods for them to be aware of and to actively address this influence. In the chapter, examples are presented and discussed.

The emergence of new industries at the regional level: alignment of organizational and regional industrial culture

Forskningsartikkel av Emelie Langemyr Eriksen og Arne Isaksen

Sammendrag: 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 emergence. We argue that industry emergence is supported if organizational culture in emerging industries and existing or altered regional industrial culture become aligned. The four industry cases demonstrate how in some situations industries emerge through a branching route, for example, related spin-offs, while in other cases they emerge through a creation route based on unrelated local start-ups or importation. We argue that an alignment of organizational and regional industrial culture is more easily achieved in the branching than in the creation route.

The Dialogical Approach to Workplace Innovation

Bokkapittel av Hans Chr. Garmann Johnsen, Clare Hildebrandt, Hildegunn Mellesmo Aslaksen, Richard Ennals & Jon P. Knudsen

Sammendrag: This chapter presents a Nordic-based research approach, aimed at encouraging dialogical processes and broad participation at work, in order to support workplace innovation. The approach has been implemented in Norway and Sweden. The chapter (a) presents the theoretical underpinning related to the dialogical approach to workplace innovation; (b) presents findings from three large successive workplace innovation programmes based on this foundation in Norway; (c) connects (a) and (b) by presenting the programme designs, evaluations and research output and finally (d) reflects upon learning points from this programme history. The overall thesis is that the dialogical approach to workplace innovation has taken a large step forward through the Norwegian programmes. There is potential to further develop both the theoretical foundation for this approach and the methodology of dialogical change.

Cluster development and regional industrial restructuring: agency and asset modification

Forskningsartikkel av Jan Ole Rypestøl, Arne Isaksen, Emelie Langemyr Eriksen, Tatjana Iakovleva, Svein Gunnar Sjøtun og Rune Njøs

Sammendrag: 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 development. The theoretical approach is illustrated and further advanced through a study of agency and asset modification in three recent cluster initiatives in western Norway. While the results of the empirical studies confirm the relevance of the theoretical approach, they also highlight the importance of specific regional and extra-regional contextual factors, as well as national policies and regulations, for clusters.

Fra verdikjede til fungerende klynge. Et casestudie av klyngeprosjektet Tre på Agder.

Masteroppgave av Rebecka Lauvrak Løvjomås

Sammendrag: Formålet med denne oppgaven er å 1) utforme et analytisk rammeverk som kan brukes til å studere hvordan en verdikjede i en region kan utvikles til å bli en fungerende klynge, og 2) bruke det analytiske rammeverket til å analysere klyngeetableringen som skjer i den trebaserte næringen i Agder gjennom klyngeprosjektet Tre på Agder. Rammeverket ble laget med grunnlag i teorien om verdikjeder, regionale innovasjonssystem, ressursendringer, klyngeetablering, oppgraderingsmekanismer og virkelig klynge (som jeg kaller «fungerende klynge»). Gjennom analysen oppdaget jeg at denne modellen egnet seg som verktøy for å samle inn og analysere data, samt forstå aktiviteter og prosesser som skjer i klyngeetableringen. Det var likevel behov for å revidere det analytiske rammeverket med bakgrunn i funnene som kom frem i analysen. Det kom frem at enkelte aktører er særlig viktige for de ulike prosessene som skjer under klyngeetableringen og kan bidra til å styrke disse prosessene. Det reviderte analytiske rammeverket inkluderer dermed det nye konseptet «bindeaktører». Bindeaktører kan både være bedrifts- og systemaktører. Bindeaktørene kobler aktører på bedrifts- og systemnivå sammen og bidrar til gjensidig tilpasning mellom de to nivåene. I tillegg bidrar «bindeaktører» til å styrke prosessene som skjer når det gjelder ressursendring og oppgradering.

Grøn omstilling av regionalt næringsliv. Eit casestudie av Eyde-klynga.

Masteroppgave av Yngvild Bakken Furunes

Sammendrag: Tema for denne masteroppgåva er grøn omstilling av regionalt næringsliv. Både nasjonalt og internasjonalt har det grøne skiftet hatt ei aukande tyding i omstillinga av regionalt næringsliv. Denne studien analyserer handlingane til aktørar i Eyde-klynga, med hensikt om å auke kunnskap om korleis klynger og andre aktørar bidrar i ein grøn omstillingsprosess av regionalt næringsliv. Gjennom handlingar på systemnivå og bedriftsnivå kan aktørar i klynga endre ressursar i innovasjonssystemet og bedriftene, til dømes kunnskap og teknologi. Studien belyser viktigheita av eit samspel mellom aktørar på systemnivå og bedriftsnivå i utviklinga av innovasjonssystem. Aktørar på systemnivå bidrar med å skape møteplassar mellom ulike aktørar, utvikle ny kunnskap gjennom forskingsprosjekt, utvikle strategiar for grøn omstilling og skape politiske verkemiddel. Aktørar på bedriftsnivå bidrar og nyttar desse ressursane til utvikling av kunnskap for å omstille sine produksjonar i ei grønare retning. Desse handlingane bidrar til grøn omstilling gjennom utvikling av innovasjonssystem og dei eksisterande utviklingsbanane for næringslivet i regionen. Studien viser at ulike aktørar speler ei viktig rolle i ein grøn omstillingsprosess og saman kan dei bidra til grøn omstilling av regionalt næringsliv.

2020

The learning region tradition: a cultural reappraisal

Forskningsartikkel av Jon P. Knudsen

Sammendrag: The learning region has over the years become popular as a concept to portray and analyse subnational geographic entities heading for future growth and well-being. Claiming analytic and political relevance, the concept nevertheless retains much unclarified ideological content. This study traces its roots to varieties of heterodox economic thinking where it has gained a prominent place. While being strong on the value of different kinds of knowledge to economic development, the concept has a much weaker grip on the cultural rationales for knowledge and learning. Thus, the study concludes with a need for a cultural reorientation to take place if the concept is going to retain its significance in the future academically as politically.

The Agder region: an innovation policy case study

Bokkapittel av Roger Normann, Sissel Strickert & Jon P. Knudsen

Sammendrag: In this chapter, we discuss some of the key distinguishing features of regional governance in the Agder region, Southern Norway, for stimulating innovation, growth and productivity gains. In the EU, regional innovation policies have become almost synonymous with Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). At the outset, Norway and Norwegian regions had a solid foundation for implementing RIS3 and it would not have been a surprise if Norway had become one of the frontrunners in implementing RIS3 as well. This, however, did not happen. The Norwegian responses were uncoordinated at the national level and fragmented at the regional level.

Studenter som aktører i regionale samskapingsprosesser – en ny form for praksis?

Bokkapittel av James Karlsen

Sammendrag: This chapter examines the students’ role in regional co-creation processes as a new form of internship. The main argument is that students outside the traditional profession-oriented educational programs in health, social work and teacher education training curriculums, such as master-level students in innovation and knowledge development studies, need practical experiences in real-time interactions with regional actors. Practical experiences are in-the moment practices constructed in dialogues between actors with different interests and knowledge. Within the research, the aim was to design a course where students and regional actors are both participants and co-learners. As co-learners, it is necessary for students to develop process awareness. The research question is: how is process awareness constructed between students and regional actors? A theoretical grounding for building process awareness is to create learning arenas with specific purpose and democratic dialogue in which to develop process awareness. The key findings from our action research dialogues are: i) the uniqueness of real-life challenges experienced in the co-creation processes with regional actors is difficult to replicate in the classroom (on campus); specifically, relational tensions and/or conflicts-of-interest can only be witnessed real-time, ii) the need to make explicit the time dimension of the co-creation process, and iii) the need to make explicit the evolving (unfinished) work in the co-creation process.

Unravelling green regional industrial path development: Regional preconditions, asset modification and agency

Forskningsartikkel av Michaela Trippl, Simon Baumgartinger-Seiringer, Alexandra Frangenheim, Arne Isaksen, Jan Ole Rypestøl

Sammendrag: Regions across the world are searching for ways to fashion new green growth paths and to promote green shifts in mature industries. The article aims to explore conceptually and based on illustrative empirical examples from the literature how green restructuring unfolds in regions. We propose a framework that explicates how regional preconditions in form of pre-existing industrial structures, organisational support structures, institutional set-ups and natural assets are transformed into various types of green path development through agentic processes of asset modification.

2019

Smart specialisation—Norwegian adoptions

Forskningsartikkel av Jon P Knudsen, Ann Camilla Schulze-Krogh & Roger

Sammendrag: European regions have become a giant testbed for Research and Innovation strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3). Norwegian regions have reacted to this policy concept in different ways, some adopting RIS3, some exploring it without implementation, and others choosing not to engage. This article offers a framework for interpreting regional policy adoption and response. We use a regional adaptation of the Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach to illuminate patterns that may affect the implementation of regional innovation policies throughout Europe. We ask: How can the variety of preparedness to and adoption of RIS3 in Norwegian regions be explained? We find patterns of responses from the case regions that corroborate our regional VoC typology. These responses show that regional policy institutions behave as part and parcel of the regional cultures in which they are embedded. Thus, their responses make sense economically, politically and socio-culturally. The framework developed contributes to the literature on regional policy formation and to our general understanding of the institutional preconditions for regional policy adoption and response.

Towards a comprehensive understanding of new regional industrial path development

Forskningsartikkel av Robert Hassink, Arne Isaksen og Michaela Trippl

Sammendrag: 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 multi-actor and multi-scalar approach, to integrate the future into analyses of path development, and to offer a broader view on inter-path relations.

Innovasjonssystems påvirkning på utvikling og bruk av velferdsteknologi

Masteroppgave av Maren Songe Eriksen

Sammendrag: Denne oppgaven studerer hvordan omgivelsene rundt Arendal kommune påvirker utvikling og bruk av velferdsteknologi i kommunens hjemmesykepleie. Det er nyttig å vite noe om hvordan velferdsteknologi brukes og utvikles og om hvordan dette skjer i kommunal helsesektor, da velferdsteknologi kan bidra til å møte ulike utfordringer som norsk offentlig helsesektor står ovenfor. Oppgavens teoretiske perspektiv bygger på en innovasjonssystem-tilnærming og kobler teorien om sektorielle innovasjonssystem sammen med teori om innovasjon i offentlig sektor og kultur. Studien påpeker viktigheten av samarbeid og kunnskapsdeling mellom kommunen og eksterne aktører, samt internt mellom ulike avdelinger i kommunen. Den viser også hvordan kommunens evne til å benytte seg av kompetansen i omgivelsene er avgjørende for hvordan innovasjonssystemet påvirker kommunens innovasjonsevne.