Proceedings of 8th European Assembly on telework (Telework2001)

188Not unexpectedly, this rather big jump from what was generally a single enterprise strategy andto whole industries proved difficult to achieve. Few viable branch programs emerged. What didemerge, however, was a growing number <strong>of</strong> smaller networks: typically five to ten enterprisesjoining forces to improve on themes like training and competence development, productivity,product development, quality control and similar. The networks were generally <strong>of</strong> modest “mass”but they allowed for concrete co-operation between the participating enterprises.As a consequence <strong>of</strong> its intention to actively mobilise research to support the agreement, the labourmarket parties initiated – in the early 1990s – a program for this purpose, in co-operation withthe Research Council <strong>of</strong> Norway and the State Fund for Economic and Regional Development.Called “Enterprise Development 2000” a main function <strong>of</strong> this program was to extend the linksand ties between enterprises, between enterprises and research, between enterprises and otherrelevant actors, <strong>of</strong>ten regional ones, including the regional representatives <strong>of</strong> the labour marketparties themselves. In interviews conducted with the enterprises on behalf <strong>of</strong> an internationalbenchmarking group – with members from Sweden, Finland, The UK, Germany and France – theenterprise representatives themselves stress this linking function as a core one. They also generallyreport positive effects on productivity and innovative capacity but in a sense these results aretaken more to demonstrate the force <strong>of</strong> the co-operation than to be exceptional in their own right(Gustavsen et al 2001)In the third phase <strong>of</strong> the unfolding <strong>of</strong> the agreement on development – a new program called ValueCreation 2010 – the major new step is to strengthen the regional development coalitions. (Thenotion <strong>of</strong> “development coalition” corresponds roughly to the concept <strong>of</strong> “partnership” which, inturn, is <strong>of</strong>ten identical to the co-ordination roles in innovation systems). The point is to strengthenthe degree <strong>of</strong> interaction, in particular between the actors in the public support apparatus, with aview to promoting development processes on a regional level, alternatively an industry level. Inthis way Norway moves along the same trajectory as many other <strong>European</strong> countries and eventhe policies <strong>of</strong> the <strong>European</strong> Union itself where the regional plays a major role. Although anykind <strong>of</strong> “region” in Norway will be thinly populated compared to the <strong>European</strong> averages – infact, the whole economy is comparable to a regional one as much as a nation state economy –a regionalisation <strong>of</strong> economic development is nonetheless important in Norway. The reason isjust that enterprises are thin on the ground and that it is, for this reason, extremely difficult tocreate networks or other forms <strong>of</strong> co-operation on industry- or branch basis: there will simplynot be a sufficient number <strong>of</strong> enterprises available with a common industry background withineach separate local context. For the Norwegian economy to reap the benefits <strong>of</strong> networking,co-operation across industries is called for. To organise this kind <strong>of</strong> co-operation there is <strong>of</strong>ten aneed for regional actors.“The terrain between organisations” is growing in mass and complexity. If we look at theNorwegian scene in terms <strong>of</strong> the notion <strong>of</strong> innovation system what we find at the moment is alarge number <strong>of</strong> initiatives. Enterprise networks, technology centres, business centres, innovationparks, clusters, even efforts at creating “industrial districts” and “learning regions” are appearingby the numbers. Excepting a few co-operation schemes in the oil and gas sector all are, however,small. One <strong>of</strong> the few “national initiatives” to promote innovation pertains to the microelectronicsindustry, with a main focus on a network <strong>of</strong> 45 enterprises located in the same region, referred toas “Electronic Coast”. The sum total <strong>of</strong> workplaces involved in this national initiative is, however,barely above 2000, which tells a lot about the scale <strong>of</strong> innovation initiatives in Norway. Somenetworks like the abovementioned TESA is in the scale <strong>of</strong> 3 – 5000 workplaces (Hansen &