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The Fall and Rise of the Norwegian IT Industry in the Global Age, 1970–2005

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Knut Sogner
Knut Sogner
Affiliation:
KNUT SOGNER is professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo.
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Abstract

Although Norway's information-technology (IT) industry has never been an international success, it has been a critical factor in the country's economy over the past thirty years. Several IT companies came close to reaching a global scale, but escalating costs finally prevented them from doing so. In addition, the IT firms became sidetracked by the domestic sales opportunities that accompanied the expansion of the Norwegian oil sector, as they chose to design specialized products for national markets instead of targeting the international market-place. Although their decision resulted in organizational continuity, the firms themselves have experienced turbulence, bankruptcy, and change, making the development of the sector a messy and problematic affair.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , Winter 2007 , pp. 709 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2007

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References

1 This article was originally written for the Innovation, Path-dependency and Policy (IPP) project at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) at the University of Oslo. A longer version will be published in Innovation, Path Dependency and Policy: The Norwegian Case, edited by Jan Fagerberg, David Mowery, and Bart Verspagen. My interpretation of the development of the Norwegian IT industry has benefited from conversations with many people over the years, most recently with doctoral candidates Sverre A. Christensen, Stein Bjornstad, and Gard Paulsen. Comments by Jan Fagerberg, Sjur Kasa, David Mowery, and Olav Wicken at the IPP workshop held at Leangkollen were valuable, as were the comments of two anonymous reviewers. Koson Sapprasart improved the tables and provided the figure for this article.

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