Search results for: Terje Grønning

Authors: Parisa Afshin, Terje Grønning

Abstract:

Norway, similar to many other countries, has set the focus of its policies in creating new strong and highly innovative sectors in recent years, as the oil and gas sector profitability is declining. Biotechnology sector in Norway has a great potential, especially in marine-biotech and cancer medicine. However, Norway being a periphery faces especial challenges in the path of creating internationally well-known biotech sector and an international knowledge hub. The aim of this article is to analyze the progress of the Norwegian biotechnology industry, its pathway to build up an innovation network and conduct collaborative innovation based on its initial conditions and its own advantage and disadvantages. The findings have important implications not only for politicians and academic in understanding the infrastructure of biotechnology sector in the country, but it has important lessons for other periphery countries or regions aiming in creating strong biotechnology sector and catching up with the strong internationally-recognized regions. Data and methodology: To achieve the main goal of this study, information has been collected via secondary resources such as web pages and annual reports published by the officials and mass media along with interviews were used. The data were collected with the goal to shed light on a brief history and current status of Norway biotechnology sector, as well as geographic distribution of biotech industry, followed by the role of academic and industry collaboration and public policies in Norway biotech. As knowledge is the key input in innovation, knowledge perspective of the system such as knowledge flow in the sector regarding the national and regional innovation system has been studied. Primary results: The internationalization has been an important element in development of periphery regions' innovativeness enabling them to overcome their weakness while putting more weight on the importance of regional policies. Following such findings, suggestions on policy decision and international collaboration, regarding national and regional system of innovation, has been offered as means of promoting strong innovative sector.

Keywords: biotechnology sector, knowledge-based industry, national innovation system, regional innovation system

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Barbara Rebecca Mutonyi, Chukwuemeka Echebiri, Terje Slåtten, Gudbrand Lien

Abstract:

The concept of affective commitment to change has been scarcely explored among employees in the higher education literature. The present study addresses this knowledge gap in the literature by examining how various psychological factors, such as psychological empowerment (PsyEmp), and psychological capital (PsyCap), promotes affective commitment to change. As affective commitment to change has been identified by previous studies as an important aspect to implementation behavior, the study examines the correlation of affective commitment to change on employee innovative behavior (EIB) in higher education. The study proposes mediation relationship between PsyEmp, PsyCap, and affective commitment to change. 250 employees in higher education in Norway were sampled for this study. The study employed online survey for data collection, utilizing Stata software to perform Partial least square equation modeling to test the proposed hypotheses of the study. Through bootstrapping, the study was able to test for mediating effects. Findings of the study shows a strong direct relationship between the leadership factor PsyEmp on the individual factor PsyCap ( = 0.453). In addition, the findings of the study reveal that both PsyEmp and PsyCap are related to affective commitment to change ( = 0.28 and  = 0.249, respectively). In total, PsyEmp and PsyCap explains about 10% of the variance in the concept of affective commitment to change. Further, the direct effect of effective commitment to change and EIB is also supported ( = 0.183). The three factors, PsyEmp, PsyCap, and affective commitment to change, explains nearly 40% (R2 = 0.39) of the variance found in EIB. The relationship between PsyEmp, PsyCap, and affective commitment to change are mediated through the individual factor PsyCap. In order to effectively promote affective commitment to change among higher education employees, higher education managers should focus on both the leadership factor, PsyEmp, as well as the individual factor, PsyCap, of their employees. In this regard, higher education managers should strengthen employees EIB through providing autonomy, creating a safe environment that encourages innovation thinking and action, and providing employees in higher education opportunities to be involved in changes occurring at work. This contributes to strengthening employees´ affective commitment to change, that further improves their EIB in their work roles as higher education employees. As such, the results of this study implicate the ambidextrous nature of the concepts of affective commitment to change and EIB that should be considered in future studies of innovation in higher education research.

Keywords: affective commitment to change, psychological capital, innovative behavior, psychological empowerment, higher education

Procedia PDF Downloads 84