This paper discusses how a Norwegian entrepreneurial state has performed over more than seventy years, based on an analysis of state involvement in Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk/the Kongsberg Group from 1945 and to 2015. Mariana Mazzucato has argued that bold technological investments by the state has long-term beneficial effects. The development of the Kongsberg companies adds nuance to this picture. On the one hand, the defense company Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk failed as a company in 1987 and was unbundled into a number of new companies independent of one another. On the other hand, some of the successor companies have been very successful, both in the oil and gas sector and within defense. Taking the defense and oil and gas company the Kongsberg Group as a case, this paper argues that a new style of entrepreneurial state developed in the 1990s and that it proved very successful. The old entrepreneurial state was heavy-handed, bold, and very long-term in its aims; the new entrepreneurial state was cautious, many-headed, and worked through the management of the company. The new entrepreneurial state combined state ownership, stock listing, and procurement considerations and was supported by both the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Defense. This new governance structure facilitated a stable corporation that over time integrated other Norwegian maritime electronics companies, which themselves had a checkered history under the old entrepreneurial state. A new corporate governance regime emerged and managed both to protect old and established product lines and to facilitate innovation both in defense and maritime electronics.
Sogner, Knut (2018)
Creativity, innovation, and the production of wealth
Heath, Eugene; Kaldis, Byron & Marcoux, Alexei (red.). The Routledge Companion to Business Ethics
This chapter offers an historic introduction to the broad field of innovation studies with an eye towards ethical matters. Four fundamental issues are highlighted. In the first section, I delineate how the concept of innovation has little place within the framework of standard economic models, yet innovation is crucial to the total economy. In the second section, I take up some theoretical approaches, emerging in the 1980s, that construe the phenomena of innovation as occurring within specific circumstances. This is the “interactive” approach. In the subsequent section, I focus on how innovation has been seen, by some, to be institutionalized within the large corporation or, in other cases, within clusters of small companies or even the nation state, noting as well how some scholars have argued for cultural or ethical frameworks as catalysts of innovation. In the final section, I canvas some of the debate as to whether or why innovation has failed to return economic growth to the wealthy nations.
Sogner, Knut (2016)
Ressursbedrifter og naturressurser
Sogner, Knut; Lie, Einar & Aven, Håvard Brede (red.). Entreprenørskap i næringsliv og politikk. Festskrift til Even Lange
Sogner, Knut; Lie, Einar & Aven, Håvard Brede (2016)
Entreprenørskap i næringsliv og politikk. Festskrift til Even Lange
Novus Forlag.
Sogner, Knut (2015)
Constructive power
Fellman, Susanna; Iversen, Martin Jes, Sjøgren, Hans & Lars, Thue (red.). Creating Nordic Capitalism (Korean translation)
Sogner, Knut (2014)
Hvem var forretningsmennene?
Ekberg, Espen; Lønnborg, Mikael & Myrvang, Christine (red.). Næringsliv og historie
Sogner, Knut & Petersen, Tine (2014)
Strategiske samspill: Kongsberg Gruppens historie 1987-2014
Pax Forlag.
Sogner, Knut (2012)
Ancestor or Inheritor? Johan H. Andresen (1888-1963) and his capitalist family
Perlinge, Anders & Sjøgren, Hans (red.). Biographies of the Financial World
Sogner, Knut (2012)
Andresens. En familie i norsk økonomi og samfunnsliv gjennom to hundre år
Pax Forlag.
Sogner, Knut (2009)
Innovation as Adaptation: The Digital Challenge in the Norwegian Fishing Industry, 1970-1985
Business History Review, 83(2), s. 349- 367.
Sogner, Knut (2009)
Slow growth and revolutionary change : the Norwegian IT industry enters the global age, 1970-2005
Fagerberg, Jan; Mowery, David & Verspagen, Hubertus (red.). Innovation, path dependency and policy. The Norwegian case
Sogner, Knut (2008)
Constructive power. Elkem 1904-2004
Susanna Fellman, Martin Iversen, Hans Sjøgren, Lars Thue (eds): Creating the Nordic Model of Capitalism
Sogner, Knut (2008)
Changing transnational affections. Orkla, Elkem and Norwegian big business 1960-2004
Harm Schröter (ed.), The European Enterprise. Historical Investigation into a Future Species
Sogner, Knut (2007)
Næringspolitikkens betydning for fremveksten av norsk elektronikk- og IT-industri
Olav Spilling (red.), Kunnskap, næringsutvikling og innovasjonspolitikk
Sogner, Knut (2007)
Utvikling av næringssystemer - systemtilnærminger i et historisk perspektiv
Olav Spilling (red.), Kunnskap, næringsutvikling og innovasjonspolitikk
Sogner, Knut (2007)
The Fall and Rise of the Norwegian IT Industry in the Global Age, 1970-2005
Business History Review, 81(Winter), s. 709- 734.
Sogner, Knut (2006)
Lederkapitalisme og eierkapitalisme. Energiselskapet Hafslund formes
Fredrik Engelstad, Even Lange, Helge Pharo og Erik Rudeng (red.), Demokratisk konservatisme. Frihet, fremskritt, fred. Festskrift til Francis Sejersted
Sogner, Knut (2005)
Mineraler og metallurgiske metoder
Astrid Wale og Anne Kristine Børresen: Vitenskap og teknologi for samfunnet? Bergfagene som kunnskapsfelt
Sogner, Knut (2004)
The Rise and Fall of State Information Technology Planning ? or how Norwegian Planners Became Captains of Industry 1960-1990
Richard Coopey (ed.): Information Technology Policy ? An International History