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Norwegian report 2000
1. Introduction
1. Introduction The themes referred to in the headline have not been explicitly illuminated in earlier reports on research of service activities in Norway. These reports have mainly concentrated on organisational, regional, international and innovative aspects of the industry . One of the reasons for this seemingly lack of interest in institutional and cultural perspectives is simple enough. Research on both aspects have been very scarce in recent years. 2. Institutionally affiliated resarch As far as the institutional dimension is concerned, this lack of engagement is somewhat surprising, since Norwegian scholars relatively early was in the frontline in emphasizing the importance of institutional economics, particularly governance systems and issues in the overall economic and industrial development (Hernes 1978, Olsen 1978.). This orientation was not transferred to explicit services research, however, at the same time as much of it seemed to be lost during the period with extreme neo-liberal tendencies and inclinations with concomitant emphasis on the neo-classical paradigm in the research community. Interest seems to have been revived of late and there are signs of a resurgence in the research literature which has been produced in recent years. Only incrementally this resurgence has direct connections to services, however. Three directions in this connection deserve mention, though, 1) the interface between public and private services and deregulation of the service economy, 2) the role of institutions contributing to shape the service economy and 3) institutional certification of services. During most of the five year period from 1995 to 2000 projects on compulsory competitive tendering of public services and privatisation of public services have been in progress both at the research foundation of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (SNF) and the Trade Union Research Foundation (FAFO). At the former also private manpower provision through bureaus has been researched on, all these issues with explicit reference to institutional regulations. Results are somewhat inconclusive. An institutional shift towards the private market has by and large taken place. So far few negative consequences as to quality of services and working conditions of employees have been documented. Outsourcing has, however, although being profitable in certain fields not always been the general panacea hoped for. In addition to these projects research has also been conducted on deregulation and reorganisation of tele and information services, concluding that integrated semi-puublic solutions are better than more loose alliances. Affiliated to the University of Oslo, the STEP research group has during the period in question done research on innovation systems in services with main emphasis on the role of the knowledge intensive sector. This research which is partly comparative, viewed in an EU perspective, has culminated in an analysis of distribution and dissemination of new knowledge and the needed infrastructure, seen in an institutional light. An institutional drift from overwhelmingly public provision of services and innovation policies to more market based knowledge production and organisation could be clearly verified. This has led to a discussion of the role of public and private institutional arrangements for dissemination of innovation on more general terms. Becoming visible in the research landscape with some relevance to service aspects are programs initiated in the Research Council of Norway like SKIKT, which stands for Social and Cultural Preconditions for Information and Communication Technology. Of interest in our context is a project in this program on certification of electronic signatures, also dealing with institutionalising of systems for use in commercial tranactions, which are growing in magnitude but still lacking necessary institutional control and guarantees. Another project seeks to highlight theoretical aspects of electronic commerce. In the same program it has been probed into the extent to which tacit learning and knowledge is of superior or inferior quality in evaluations and predictions. The project îClinical professionalism and technologically disseminated expertiseî is directly connected to psychology. The results are hoped, however, to have wider and more general applicability. The prospect should be great for advanced producer services. Finally, under the new regional research programme of the Research Council, starting up in 1999, institutional determinants for the growth of service based industry, is given a broad place. An approved project, consisting of four case studies in different regional contexts, will try to uncover the importance of formal and informal institutional arrangements for the development of service-related industries. These are to be seen in a broader contextual and historical perspective and emphasizes the role of endogeneous development from below. 3. Services research with cultural perspectives Also as far as the cultural dimension of services is concerned, research activity has been rather modestly developed in Norway. But both the West and East Norway research foundations have been committed to some research on cultural economy. The platform has been rather broad, as cultural activities have been viewed not primarily as a link in employment and income generation, but as legitimate pursuits in their own right. One of the projects under this headline can be classified under the sub-theme cultural industries as its main focus was on the importance of the cultural sector in economic, industrial and welfare development in metropolitan areas. Cultural industries were seen from the supply side, dealing primarily with employment, production, management and dissemination, media being an important part of the latter function. Although the report, worked out at the SNF, could document the growing importance of a market for cultural products , it was emphasized that the role of transfer of public resources is still a major one. In this way a substantial growth of employment in its own right has been made possible. Cultural institutions, by their very nature, still reap most benefits in the capital city region with its well developed cultural infrastructure notwithstanding the extensive public funding which has been in favour of more peripheral regions. Astonishingly little research has been conducted on the differentiating role of cultural factors in service provision to enterprises and as determinants for the demand for services in the same enterprises. On the other hand, there is a growing research on cultural factors and their role in creating demand in specific sectors, mainly the tourism sector and its affiliated activities. The program of tourism research in the Research Council of Norway during the four year period 1994-1997 was explicitly committed to cultural aspects of the activity in clear contrast both to the preceding and succeeding programs. This materialised since 1996 in four concrete projects linked to cultural issues. They concentrated on cultural resources as a quality in development of tourism, on choice of cultural attractions and the importance of educational level of visitors, on festivals, the viability of which was found to be dependent on enthusiasm of volunteers, and last but not least on the importance of considering cultural attractions in context. Results of the research point to the need for considering natural and cultural attactions on the trip in tandem. Many natural attractions are in reality modified by human action and intervention, even encroachment, the best example being the cultural landscape itself. Nature and culture are thus important prerequisites for a sustained demand for tourism,. The fact that the trip as much as the destinations may be an apex of enjoyment and experience puts heavy requirements on organising the supply in a more holistic way than what has been done in conventional marketing of tourism. Combinations, or rather product packages of natural and cultural attractions are also paramount as an imperative in taking optimal advantage of potential demand. Added to the research dealing with this problematic is also a project on the trip as part of the tourism production system, where ample space is given to cultural factors, exemplifying good and bad apects of organising the cultural product. Ethno-cultural research has been particularly pursued at the Finnmark Regional Research Foundation. An important theme has been the interface between tourism development and ethnic identity, where conflicts and compromise between modern tourism and Sami culture have been important subjects on the research agenda. One of the objectives has been to demystify the culture and debunk tendencies towards making the area a kindergarten for international tourists. On the other hand attempts have been made to revaluate old manifestations of material and spiritual culture and put them into a context of active tourism through action research. To this research belong evaluations of disseminating cultural knowledge by way of museums . Research in this field has particularly been concerned with which aspects of reality are reflected in these institutions and to which factors this reflection is attributed. Simultaneously the duality between Sami and old Norse culture has been sought unearthed . The legacy of Viking culture and its modern commodification have thus been put into a northern context in a couple of research projects.
Research related to the institutional dimension of services Bogen, H.
& T. Nyen 1998. Privatisering og konkurranseutsetting i norske kommuner
(Privatisation and competitive tendering in Norwegian municipalities). Oslo.
FAFOreport 254
Literature related to cultural aspects of services Elstad, B.
& C. Thrane. 1997. Festivalkvalitet: En sammenligning av de bes¯kendes
og frivilliges vurdering av kvaliteten p Kongsberg Jazzfestival . Lillehammer.
Rapport 45/97. H¯gskolen i Lillehammer (Quality of festivals. A comparative
evaluation by visitors and volunteers of the quality of the Kongsberg Jazz
Festival) . Lillehammer College. Report 45/97
Osland, O.
1995. Kulturfeltet i storbyene. (The cultural field in metropolitan areas).
Bergen. SNFreport 34/95.
Wednesday April 21, 2004
RESER
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