Learning, Innovation and Participation: Nordic Experiences in a Global Context with a Focus on Innovation Systems and Work Organization

Abstract

In an article in the Financial Times at the beginning of May 2008, entitled ‘Nordic states stay hot on globalization’, Christian Keller of the Harvard Business School states that ‘The Nordic region is like the bumble bee: it flies, against all the rules of aerodynamics.’ To this statement I would add that the region does it even better, as it flies more like a jet liner than a bumble bee,¹ and that the reference to the rules of the aerodynamics refers to the rules made by mainstream economists of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is easy to argue that the Nordic states fly like a jet liner when looking at the various international rankings about productivity (on average 17 per cent higher than in the rest of the OECD), and competitiveness (see the World Economic Forum Growth Competitiveness Report), where over the last 5 years Finland, Sweden and Denmark, especially, have consistently been ranked among the five to six highest ranking nations, with Finland and Sweden most years among the three highest ranking nations.

This chapter is based on a research report written by the author for a DIME (Dynamics Industries and Markets in Europe — a EU 6 Framework network of excellence) project organized by Ed Lorenz.