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all elements located in Norway. ldeally there should be several competing actors at each
level of the value chain. The suppliers, sub suppliers, technology and service providers are of
particular importance. In addition, geographical concentration of actors is important in order
to obtain a dynamic industrial environment. Maritime technology at Sunnmøre, subsea
technology at Kongsberg and drilling technology at Kristiansand are Norwegian examples of
industrial clusters with a global reach.
Educational attractiveness does not only capture the quality of the general educational
system at all levels, bul it focuses more on the specialized educational programs targeting
the industry in question. This incll!des vocational programs, specializ;ed Bachelor and Master
programs, as well as corporate or industry programs offered at the business fevei where lite
long leaming is a key success factor. How much do firms invest in their human resources in
order to grow its engineering capita!?
Talent is attracted by industries and firms that invest in their human resources and otrers
opportunities for growth. Talent attractiveness measures how much pull the industry has on
talent in the various educational categories. Do young people choose this industry over other
industries? What is the market share of this industry of NTNU new engineering talents and
NHH and Bl new business talents? How attractive is this industry for highly competent
foreign talent? What is the diversity rate and the retainment rates in the various talent
categories?
Research and innovation rates measure the output, quality and impact of the R&D that takes
place in the industry and its related R&D institutions. What are the innovation rates, the
patent rates, and the commercialization rates in the industry? How much entrepreneurship
and spin-offs take in the industry?
In several industries the R&D and innovation attractiveness is at the core of the industry, but
it also takes commercialization and profitability in order to succeed. This is measured by
Ownership attractiveness which captures the ownership structure and diversity in the
industry, as well as the economic performance in value creation per employee, which is
another measure for productivity. There is clearliy a need for competent capita! (national and
foreign) at all levels in the life cycle of firms, and otten times there are weaknesses in the
early phases where venture capita! is needed.
Finally, we have to include Environmental attractiveness which measures how the industry
performs on various environmental output dimensions. such as C02 performance.
Unfortunately, the available statistics of environmental performance is still rather limited, so
here is an area for improvement.
lf an industry scores low on the knowledge commons, it is likely to meet problems when
competing for knowledge resources in a high cost economy like the Norway. What is perhaps
as important is how the knowledge commons develops: Is it growing or is it deteriorating?
The tragedy of the knowledge commons is when nobody seems to care, and when neither
the government nor the firms in the industry take responsibility for the knowledge
investments reqUired. lnvesting in knowtedge and managing knowtedge should be of highest
priority in knowledge based industries, and only such industries will be the winners in the
ever keener global competition on cost and performance.
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