Urban concentration and labour market linkages in the Norwegian ICT services sector

Jøranli, Ingvild; Herstad, Sverre J.

doi:10.1080/09654313.2017.1337726

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…This classification criterion was set in order to create a sample of firms belonging to the same industry group in terms of output. Then, the search was limited to firms located in the housing and labour market region (Gundersen and Juvkam, 2013;Jøranli and Herstad, 2017) of the Norwegian capital city, Oslo. In the next phase, besides intensive research on firms' websites, a career event for technologists, a software technology conference and a HR conference were visited.…”

Section: Methods and Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another defining characteristic is the tendency for software services firms, and knowledgeintensive services providers more generally, to locate in capital cities and large urban agglomerations. In addition to diversity and density of clients and partners, access to skilled labour is a key factor that may intensify the concentration of knowledge-intensive services firms in large-city regions (Shearmur, 2010;Herstad, 2017;Jøranli and Herstad, (2017).…”

Section: Recruitment Processes In Software Services Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Managing organisational knowledge through recruitment: searching and selecting embodied competencies

Jøranli

2018

JKM

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Purpose The creation of customized, technology-based services is highly dependent on experience-based knowledge embodied in individual expert employees. Therefore, knowledge upgrading through recruitment is fundamental to advanced services firms. Paying particular attention to the role of pre-existing knowledge bases and organisational contexts, this paper aims to investigate how software services firms search and select new employees. By doing so, it addresses an underdeveloped part of the human resource management (HRM) literature that concerns the relationship between recruitment and organisational learning. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews with HR managers and executives in 12 software firms located in the Norwegian capital, and supplementary information from technologists’ CVs. The firms are strategically chosen to support conceptual development and to allow theoretical generalizations that have relevance for practitioners, and for future research. Findings The findings point to a challenging tension associated with the need to create stable individual knowledge linkages internally in consultancy-based business environments where technologists tend to develop their careers through external labour market mobility. Practical implications Mangers should reflect upon the balance between external and internal competence investments. The creation of an organisational labour market represents one way of co-investing in integrative capabilities and thus of avoiding over-dependency on external sources of knowledge. Originality/value The study provides a conceptual model linking recruitment to organisational learning, and emphasises the importance of knowledge management functions at the intersection between external labour markets and the internal organisation.

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Section: Methods and Samplementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recruitment Processes In Software Services Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing organisational knowledge through recruitment: searching and selecting embodied competencies

Jøranli

2018

JKM

Self Cite

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“…Due to extensive missing information, we were not able to investigate empirically whether the novelty content of innovation in services firms reflect the composition of work-life experiences collected by employees. This is a major limitation, as structural change favours services that might concentrate in large-city regions to benefit from learning through external labour pools (Herstad and Ebersberger 2014, Jøranli and Herstad 2017, Power and Lundmark 2004. In extension, we have left open also the more fundamental question of inter-industry differences in the receptiveness of innovation to labour replacement and the composition of experiences (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This suggests that the relationship between intra-firm URV and radical innovation predicted in Hypothesis 2b might be stronger when firms have located in a large-city region and accumulate high URV that also provides broad contact points to the surrounding economy and absorptive capacity to match diverse external information and resources. Firms may also locate in cities to benefit from local labour markets that link similar or different-yet-related local industries Verburg 2007, Jøranli andHerstad 2017) and serve as point of gravitation in flows of specialised skills occurring at larger geographical scale. In line with Lee and Rodríguez-Pose (2013) who found location in UK cities associated with higher probabilities of innovation by imitation, this suggests that RV accumulated by firms in cities is particularly supportive of incremental innovation as predicted in Hypothesis 2a.…”

Section: H4: the Relationship Between Experience Variety And Innovation Depend On Whether Firms Engage In In-house Randdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collected worker experiences and the novelty content of innovation

2020

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In this paper we investigate whether the novelty content of innovations introduced by Norwegian manufacturing firms reflect the composition of work-life experiences collected by employees. Distinguishing between 'related' (RV) and 'unrelated' (URV) variety and using employer-employee registers merged with Community Innovation Survey data to observe experiences prior to innovation strategies and results, we find the probability of incremental innovation increasing strongly with RV when firms are located in a large-city region. URV provide additional support for incremental innovation among firms that are not R&D active, and increases more generally the probability of radical (new-to-the world) innovation.However, these relationships flatten out at moderate levels, and the maximum impact of URV on radical innovation is limited compared to the average impact of firms' R&D efforts. Thus, whereas incremental innovation is highly receptive to related worker experiences when collected and combined in urban contexts, radical innovation depend to a larger degree on the innovation strategies and efforts of the firm itself.

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“…Both regions are major centres for software development in their respective countries (see also Isaksen 2006;Martin and Trippl 2017). In 2010, as much as 57.5 percent of Norwegian ICT employment was in the greater Oslo region, and a large part of those employees were working in software development (Jøranli and Herstad 2017). Malmö and the neighbouring city of Lund host some of the main players in the Swedish ICT industry, including Ericsson and Axis Communications, as well as a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem with a large number of small and medium-sized software developers.…”

Section: Methods and Data -Interviews With Software Firms In Oslo And Malmömentioning

confidence: 99%

The virtual is reality! On physical and virtual space in software firms’ knowledge formation

Aslesen

Martin

Sardo

2018

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

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To understand how knowledge is created, it is necessary to unwrap the role played by the physical and virtual spaces in knowledge exchange and formation. The extant research offers interesting findings when it comes to the relationships among regional institutional and organizational characteristics, innovation, and firms' abilities to link up to global knowledge sources. A focus on the role of informal and low-cost mechanisms, both regional and global, has extended our understanding of their role in knowledge formation. However, the physical space has dominated the discussion in the literature on sources of knowledge formation, while the virtual space has seldom been addressed. The inclusion of the virtual space, both as an interaction space and as a different and complementary dimension, makes it possible to gain new insights into knowledge formation in a digitalizing world. Based on in-depth interviews with small and medium-sized software companies in two urban agglomerations in Norway and Sweden, this paper explores the use of physical and virtual spaces. The findings show that these spaces interact and mutually influence each other. The world is not 'flattening' due to ongoing digitalization. Rather, urban agglomerations are still important places in which these spaces are optimized and unified.

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Urban concentration and labour market linkages in the Norwegian ICT services sector

Cited by 9 publications

References 120 publications

Managing organisational knowledge through recruitment: searching and selecting embodied competencies

Managing organisational knowledge through recruitment: searching and selecting embodied competencies

Collected worker experiences and the novelty content of innovation

The virtual is reality! On physical and virtual space in software firms’ knowledge formation

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