Atle Midttun

New Political Economy Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2019.1657078

In one of the most influential contributions to modern political economy, Hall and Soskice have launched a distinction between ‘liberal’ and ‘coordinated’ market economies, placing the Nordic countries firmly in the latter category. We argue that, while the H&S distinction may serve classificatory purposes, seeing the Nordic model in terms of ‘coordinated capitalism’ blurs the distinctive features of the Nordic countries’ success as productive and fair economies. We contend that the central formula behind this success lies in what we call the Nordic model’s ambidexterity – the capacity to combine collaborative and competitive elements and skilfully navigate between them. Using an interdisciplinary perspective (inspired by organisation theory, cultural semiotics and evolutionary analysis), we provide a conceptual basis for reinterpreting the Nordic Model as an ambidextrous combination of culturally rooted, collaborative strategies that are subsequently competitively exposed. The article illustrates the workings of this ambidexterity in three societal domains: work life (including female participation), resource management – illustrated by the Norwegian petro-economy – and international business management and regulation with a focus on CSR. In each case we will show how collaboration is intertwined with pragmatic competitive exposure, yielding high productivity, high welfare, as well as fair income and wealth distribution.

Energies 12(14) Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/en12142740

The article explores the interplay between policy, technological innovation and market dynamics. It highlights the challenges of combining biofuel policies for ‘greening’ transport with reviving the Nordic forestry industry. We find that strong policy initiatives have triggered a transition to biofuel in the three Nordic countries but have so far given little stimulus to forest-industrial revival. Instead, biofuel has created dynamic change in the petroleum sector, where retailers and refineries have adopted cheap imported biofuel to diversify out of an exclusive reliance on petroleum, leaving forest-based biofuel unable to compete. However, this does not mean that the forestry industry has remained stagnant. We find that parts of the Nordic forestry industry have staged an impressive revival, though one based predominantly on high value products, such as hygiene products and labels, and not on biofuel. We conclude that, while public policy may influence commercial conditions, it does not—in a market economy—dictate the industrial strategy, which is hard to predict, especially when it moves beyond existing sector-boundaries. However, the recent adjustment in biofuel policy, in part a response to ecological critique, may represent a more promising opportunity for forest-industrial participation in the future.

Cliodynamics 9(2) s. 124-139 Doi: https://doi.org/10.21237/C7clio9242078

Recent years have seen major political crises throughout the world, and foreign policy analysts nearly universally expect to see rising tensions within (and between) countries in the next 5–20 years. Being able to predict future crises and to assess the resilience of different countries to various shocks is of foremost importance in averting the potentially huge human costs of state collapse and civil war. The premise of this paper is that a transdisciplinary approach to forecasting social breakdown, recovery, and resilience is entirely feasible, as a result of recent breakthroughs in statistical analysis of large-scale historical data, the qualitative insights of historical and semiotic investigations, and agent-based models that translate between micro-dynamics of interacting individuals and the collective macro-level events emerging from these interactions. Our goal is to construct a series of probabilistic scenarios of social breakdown and recovery, based on historical crises and outcomes, which can aid the analysis of potential outcomes of future crises. We call this approach—similar in spirit to ensemble forecasting in weather prediction—multipath forecasting (MPF). This paper aims to set out the methodological premises and basic stages envisaged to realize this goal within a transdisciplinary research collaboration: first, the statistical analysis of a massive database of past instances of crisis to determine how actual outcomes (the severity of disruption and violence, the speed of resolution) depend on inputs (economic, political, and cultural factors); second, the encoding of these analytical insights into probabilistic, empirically informed computational models of societal breakdown and recovery—the MPF engine; third, testing the MPF engine to “predict” the trajectories and outcomes of another set of past social upheavals, which were not used in building the model. This “historical retrodiction” is an innovation that will allow us to further refine the MPF technology. Ultimately our vision is to use MPF to help write what we call “a history of possible futures,” in which the near- and medium-term paths of societies are probabilistically forecast.

Sustainable Modernity: The Nordic Model and Beyond s. 2004-228 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315195964-11

Sustainable Modernity: The Nordic Model and Beyond s. 139-160 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315195964-8

Sustainable Modernity: The Nordic Model and Beyond s. 187-204 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315195964-10

Routledge

Sustainable Modernity: The Nordic Model and Beyond s. 1-18 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315195964-1

Global Modernization Review (II):Modernity and Diversity in New Era s. 241-259

Energy Policy 108 s. 330-343 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.05.046

This article contributes to the understanding of the current transformation of the energy industry in Europe and the interplay between greening policies and digital technological innovation. It shows how, since the financial crisis, core players in the European energy industry ended up in a dualist limbo, between conventional and emerging business models. It documents how strategies and business models that delivered extraordinary financial performance in the first decade of the 21st century often failed dramatically after the 2008 financial crisis. Yet it finds that incumbents with 1) a greener energy mix, 2) smaller scale and, quite naturally, 3) better financial performance fared better than others The study explores the emergence of new business models and finds that most of the emerging business models circle around the customer interface where digital solutions allow more flexible interplay between consumption and production of energy, and/or between several service alternatives to fulfill basic needs for customer home comfort. The article also discusses important policy implications: For competition policy, it indicates a shift from challenges of scale and scope towards challenges of regulating networks and dominant platforms. Furthermore, it highlights new policy dilemmas concerning balancing and energy storage to accommodate intermittent supply from renewables.

Energy and Transport in Green Transition: Perspectives on Ecomodernity s. 18-61 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315761138-2

Routledge

Energy and Transport in Green Transition: Perspectives on Ecomodernity s. 103-130

Energy and Transport in Green Transition: Perspectives on Ecomodernity s. 1-18-1-18 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315761138-1

Energy and Transport in Green Transition: Perspectives on Ecomodernity s. 174-198 Doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315761138-8

Business & Society 54(4) s. 464-500 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650312450848

Energy & Environment 26(8) s. 1271-1292 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1260/0958-305X.26.8.1271

Im Hürdenlauf zur Energiewende: Von Transformationen, Reformen und Innovationen s. 165-186 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06788-5_11

Civil Society in the Age of Monitory Democracy s. 289-309 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/14720701011021148

Cappelen Damm Akademisk

CSR and beyond: A Nordic perspective s. 17-44

CSR and beyond: A Nordic perspective s. 305-329

Energy Policy 48(Sept.) s. 1-4 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.04.048

Over the last four or five years the world has seen a dramatic change in the international climate negotiations, from an upbeat vision of an agreement on emission reduction targets and burden sharing launched on Bali in 2007, followed by a search for new strategies to ensure more success in Rio in 2012. One of the emerging outcomes has been a 'green growth' strategy which seems more likely to succeed as a central climate mitigation approach, insofar as it can more easily be aligned with aspirations across national divides. Against the backdrop of the financial and sovereign debt crises, there are great hopes that green innovation and industrial engagement, triggered by innovative policies, can save the climate at the same time as boosting sluggish economies. A separate and parallel development is a move from international climate negotiations towards multilevel engagements by national governments. In spite of failures in reaching international climate consensus, both informal and formalized networks and coalitions have been formed between cities, regions and states take climate action nevertheless. And there is a growing awareness that environmental governance, in order to be effective, not only needs a multi-level but also multi-actor through the engagement of civil society alongside the state and market.

Energy Policy 48(September) s. 22-35 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.04.049

Europe has played the role of a green hegemon on the global arena for several decades. By exploring its green transition in the electricity industry, the article discusses whether Europe is on track with regard to delivering sustainable development in a core sector at home. The article finds that the greening of European electricity industry has been highly dynamic and can best be represented in terms of competing modernities; where carbon, nuclear, renewables and demand side management challenge each other in the race for sustainable energy solutions. The article describes the Greening European electricity industry as a complex institutional game which resembles a relay race where various factors have driven innovation at different stages. Change may be initially have been politically driven, while the baton is later taken by markets, technology or civic mobilization. The article shows how strong greening policies may lead to blockage, whereas softer and less confrontational policies with triggering effects may have a better chance of success. The article also argues that a central factor in the apparent European success in greening electricity has been an advantageous blend of technology push and market pull approaches, which has merged out of national rivalry rather than coordinated planning.

Magma forskning og viten 15(7) s. 20-22

Magma forskning og viten 15(7) s. 41-51

Norsk petroleumssektor har vært en storstilt arena for innovasjon. Næringen har gått løs på en kontinuerlig strøm av utfordringer; fra utvikling av felt i grunne farvann med lett tilgjengelig olje og gass, til kompliserte reservoarer, langt fra land i dype havområder, og med store klimatiske utfordringer. Utfordringene har vært løst gjennom et omfattende samarbeid mellom operatørselskap (store petroleumsselskap), deres leverandører og underleverandører. Keynes påviste i sin tid muligheter for å utnytte positive ringvirkninger av offentlige investeringer og forbruk for å få fart på økonomien (Keynes 1936). Effekten var langt større enn den offentlige innsatsen skulle tilsi, takket være omfattende ringvirkninger eller den såkalte 'multiplikatoreffekten'. Vi argumenterer for at det kan skapes en tilsvarende multiplikatoreffekt for innovasjon som ikke bare utløser leverandørbedriftenes kreativitet, men også høster erfaringer fra nyskapning i egne utallige øvrige nettverk og kunderelasjoner. Denne effekten er illustrert gjennom tre case, nemlig utviklingen av den ubemannede og tråløse undervannsfarkosten, HUGIN, havbunnsgravemaskinen SPIDER og et havbunns-gasskomperasjonsanlegg. Casene illustrerer også operatørselskapenes evne til å mobilisere og koordinere sitt leverandørnettverk. Med deres sterke ressursbase og betydelige insentiver, klarer de å forene behovet for samarbeid, mot behovet for konkurranse. Petroleumselskapene konkurrerer med hverandre om å få operatøransvaret for nye felt (lisenser). Straks lisensen er utdelt, samarbeider de om utbygging og drift av det samme feltet. De mobiliserer så sitt leverandørnettverk i en åpen invasjonsarena. Premien for leverandørene er kompetanseoppbygging og utvikling av nye immaterielle verdier, som igjen kan brukes for å erobre nye prosjekter og kunder.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 18(1) s. 25-38 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.237

Przegląd Europejski

Corporate Governance : The international journal of business in society 10(1) s. 6-17

Governance of Innovation: Firms, Clusters and Institutions in a Changing Setting

Corporate Governance : The international journal of business in society 10(1) s. 97-109

Helena Flam and Marcus Carson (eds), Rule Systems Theory. Applications and Explorations

Magma forskning og viten 11(5) s. 75-86

Corporate Governance : The international journal of business in society 8(4) s. 406-418

Corporate Governance : The international journal of business in society 7(2) s. 194-208

Energy Policy 35(3) s. 1419-1422

Corporate Governance : The international journal of business in society 7(4) s. 401-413

Green Power Markets: Support Schemes, Case Studies and Perspectives, Lutz Mez (ed)

Innovasjonsprosesser: Om Innovasjoners Odysée, Hernes og Koefoed (red) s. 173-196

Magma forskning og viten 10(3) s. 57-71

Kunneke et al, Institutional Reform, Regulation And Privatization: Process And Outcomes in Infrastructure Industries

Magma forskning og viten

Matthias Weber & Jens Hemmelskamp (eds): Innovation, sustainability and policy

? 5(3)

Jan Gronewegen and Rolf Kunneke (eds) :Reform of infrastructure industries

Jens Hemmelskamp(ed): Innovation, sustainability and policy

? 15(4) s. 633-656

Energy Policy 32(12) s. 1355-1362

Energy Policy 31(7) s. 677-687

Jean-Michel Glachant and Dominique Finon (eds.): Competition in European Electricity Markets. A Cross-country Comparison

Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack (eds.): Globalization and Institutions

Journal of Network Industries 2(1) s. 25-68

European energy industry business strategies / Atle Midttun (ed.)

International Journal of Regulation and Governance 1(1) s. 79-111

Environmental Politics

Energi og miljø ved et tidsskille - samfunnsfaglige perspektiver fra forskningsprogrammet SAMRAM / Aarne O. Røvik (red.) s. 71-89

Public Administration 77(4) s. 873-895

? 12(2)

Energy Policy 26(2)

Energy Policy 26(3)

Energy Policy 26(13)

Globalisering - drivkrefter og konsekvenser