|
This publication, forthcoming in July 2008, reviews the strengths and weaknesses of Norway’s innovation system and recommends steps the government could take to foster innovation activity and increase the impact of innovation on the country’s future prosperity and social well-being.
Norway’s economic performance has been consistently very good. Average real income is among the highest in the world and productivity is high. Yet, Norway “underperforms” against a number of conventional science, technology and innovation indicators. Investment in business research and development (R&D) is comparatively low. However, the report argues that low business sector R&D expenditure today can be largely “understood” by the industrial structure’s smaller share of R&D-intensive industries than the OECD average. Non-R&D-based innovation, such as innovation in the service sector and in the organisation and the business model of enterprises, which is difficult to capture by available quantitative indicators, seems to underlie the exceptional productivity performance of the private services sector.
The key strategic task ahead is to maintain high, sustainable growth even after oil and gas production has peaked. Any foreseeable restructuring of the Norwegian economy compatible with this goal will entail a shift towards other knowledge-based activities. In order to achieve this goal, policies to strengthen innovation capabilities, including the R&D component of the innovation system, are needed.
The OECD report sees room for improvement and recommends concrete action in the following areas of government policy:
-
Framework conditions for innovation
-
Governance of the innovation system
-
Research funding
-
Promotion of innovation in the business sector
-
Internationalisation of R&D.
Further information about the OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy series is available at www.oecd.org/sti/innovation/reviews. For further information about the Norwegian innovation review, journalists are invited to contact Gernot Hutschenreiter of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry.
|
