Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-5lx2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T20:53:50.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.

2 This is my main argument in En liten brikke i et start spill: Den norske IT-industrien fra krise til vekst 1975-2000 (Bergen, 2002)Google Scholar.

3 I prefer the term “IT” to “ICT,” but I use the latter abbreviation when my source does. Both terms have the same meaning.

4 Global Information Technology Report, 2006-2007 (Houndmills, 2007)Google Scholar.

5 Nerheim, Gunnar and Nordvik, Helge W., Historien om IBM i Norge, 1935-1985 (Oslo, 1986)Google Scholar; Knutsen, Sverre, Lange, Even, and Nordvik, Helge, Mellom nœringsliv og politikk: Kreditkassen i vekst og kriser, 1918-1998 (Oslo, 1998)Google Scholar.

6 Smith, Keith, “Hva slags økonomiske virkninger har IKT skapt?” in IKT etter dotcomboblen, ed. Godø, Helge (Oslo, 2003)Google Scholar.

7 Ole-Petter Kordahl, personal communication, 2004.

8 Interview with Tom Gerhardsen, Kongsberg, 30 Nov. 2000.

9 See Jan Rune Holmevik, “Educating the Machine: A Study in the History of Computing and the Construction of the SIMULA Programming Language,” report no. 22, University of Trondheim, Senter for teknologi og samfunn (STS) 1994. Gard Paulsen at the BI Norwegian School of Management is currently writing a doctoral thesis entitled “Innovating Code and Coded Innovations: The Dynamics of the Software Industry, 1965-2005.”

10 OECD and Nordic Council of Ministers, Nordic Information Society Statistics (Copenhagen, 2005).

11 Norges Offentlige Utredninger [Norwegian Public Reports] (hereafter NOU), 1976: 30, Elektronikkindustri (Oslo, 1976).

12 See Smith, “Hva slags okonomiske virkninger har IKT skapt?” for more on the difficulties with ICT statistics.

13 Rinde, Harald, Et telesystem blir til: Norsk telekommunikasjonshistorie, vol. 1 (Oslo, 2005)Google Scholar.

14 Christensen, Sverre A., Switching Relations: The Rise and Fall of the Norwegian Telecom Industry (Oslo, 2006)Google Scholar.

15 Porter, Michael, The Competitive Advantage of Nations (London, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Sogner, Knut, God på bunnen: Simrad-virksomheten, 1947-1997 (Oslo, 1997)Google Scholar.

17 Collett, John Peter, ed., Making Sense of Space: The History of Norwegian Space Activities (Oslo, 1995)Google Scholar.

18 Eilertsen, Tor Arne, “Fra FOTU til FFI: Grunnleggingen av norsk forsvarsteknologisk forskning, 1942-46” (unpublished masters thesis, University of Bergen, 1987)Google Scholar.

19 Per Fremstad, “40 år med radiolinjer, 1955-1993” (unpublished booklet, Bergen, 1993).

20 Sogner, Knut, “Veksten mot idealfabrikken,” report no. 5, Teknologihistorieprosjektet, NAVF-NTNF (Oslo, 1990).Google Scholar

21 Olav Wicken has written extensively on this subject; see, for example, Wicken, Olav, “Norske våpen til Natos forsvar,” Forsvarsstudier 1 (1987)Google Scholar, and “Stille propell i storpolitisk storm,” Forsvarsstudier 1 (1988)Google Scholar.

22 Njølstad, Olav and Wicken, Olav, Kunnskap som våpen: Forsvaretsforskningsinstitutt, 1946-1975 (Oslo, 1997)Google Scholar.

23 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

24 Andersen, Hakon With, Fra det britiske til det amerikanske produksjonsideal: Forandringen av teknologi og arbeid ved Aker mek.Verksted og i norsk skipsbyggingsindustri, 1935-1970 (Trondheim, 1989)Google Scholar; Sogner, Knut, Fra plan til marked: Staten og elektronikkindustrien i 1970-årene (Oslo, 1994)Google Scholar.

25 Collett, John Peter and Lossius, Bjørn O. H., Visjon-Forskning-Virkelighet: Televerkets Forskningsinstitutt 25 år (Kjeller, 1993)Google Scholar.

26 Christensen, Switching Relations.

27 Sogner, Fra plan til marked.

28 Jensen, Kjersti, “Moderniseringsmiljøet som pådriver i norsk industriutvikling på 50 og 60-tallet” (unpublished master thesis, University of Oslo, 1989)Google Scholar.

29 Elektronikkindustri, 30.

30 Sogner, “Veksten mot idealfabrikken.”

31 Chandler, Alfred D. Jr, Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries (New York, 2001)Google Scholar.

32 Sogner, “Veksten mot idealfabrikken.”

33 Letter from Andreas Skogvold to Knut Sogner, July 1989.

34 Arnold, Erik, Competition and Technological Change in the Television Industry: An Empirical Evaluation of Theories of the Firm (London, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Japanese development, see Gregory, Gene, Japanese Electronics Technology (Chichester, 1986)Google Scholar.

35 Sogner, Fra plan til marked and En liten brikke i et stort spill.

36 Overby, Signy, “Fra forskning til industri: Utviklingen av skipsautomatiseringsbedriften Norcontrol” (unpublished masters thesis, University of Oslo, 1988)Google Scholar; NOU, 1989: 2, Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (Oslo, 1989).

37 Sogner, Fra plan til marked and Christensen, Switching Relations.

39 Collett, John Peter and Lossius, Bjørn, Visjon—forskning—virkelighet: Televerkets Forskningsinstitutt 25 år (Skedsmo, 1993)Google Scholar.

40 Christensen, Switching Relations.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

44 Sogner, Fra plan til marked.

45 Christensen, Switching Relations.

46 The following discussion is based on Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill, which draws from several other works.

47 They had taken over Tandberg after receiving a huge government aid package.

48 I am basing this comparison on my own and Christensen's work, in addition to Hyytinen, Ari, Paija, Laura, Rouvinen, Petri, and Ylä-Antilla, Pekka, “Finland's Emergence as a Global Information and Communications Technology Player: Lessons from the Finnish Wireless Cluster,” in Zysman, John and Newman, Abraham, eds., How Revolutionary was the Digital Revolution? National Responses, Market Transitions, and Global Technology (Stanford, 2006)Google Scholar.

49 McKelvey, Maureen and Texier, Francois, “Surviving Technological Discontinuities through Evolutionary Systems of Innovation: Ericsson and Mobile Telecommunication,” in Edquist, Charles and McKelvey, Maureen, eds., Systems of Innovation: Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, vol. 2, (Cheltenham, U.K., 2000)Google Scholar.

50 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

51 Christensen, Switching Relations.

52 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

53 NOU, Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk.

54 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

55 For DEC, see Chandler, Inventing the Electronic Century.

56 Hanisch, Tore Jørgen and Nerheim, Gunnar, Norsk oljehistorie: Fra vantro til overmot. Bind 1 (Oslo, 1992)Google Scholar.

57 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

58 Kjell Grønhaug, Torger Reve, and Tor Fredriksen, “Teknologiavtalene: Samarbeidsaktiviteter og samarbeidsvirkninger,” report 1/86, Senter for anvendt forskning, NHH (Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration). See also Wicken, Olav, “The Role of R&D in Industrial Policy: Rise and Fall of a Research Driven Strategy for Industrialisation,” TIK Working Paper on Innovation Studies no. 20070603 (Oslo, 2007).Google Scholar

59 Bjørnstad, Stein, in Spilling, Olav, ed., “Forklaringsmodeller for ‘århundrets største ingeniørbragder,’” Kunnskap, nœringsutvikling og innovasjonspolitikk (Bergen, 2007)Google Scholar.

60 In addition to Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill, Stein Bjornstad is writing a doctoral thesis at the Norwegian School of Management on the oil-related activities of the Kongsberg companies, in which he describes the history of dynamic positioning and underwater production systems in detail.

61 Gard Paulsen, “Innovasjon over Nordsjøen: Telekommunikasjoner på norsk sokkel,” Forskningsrapport 3/2005, Handelshøyskolen BI.

62 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.

63 Ibid.; Christensen, Switching Relations; Thue, Lars, Nye forbindelser (1970-2005), vol. 3 of Norsk telekommunikasjonshistorie (Oslo, 2005)Google Scholar.

64 Sogner, En liten brikke i et stort spill.