Firms In Norway Research Articles

Inter-Organizational Knowledge Management: A Comparison of Law Firms in Norway and Australia

Law firms represent an industry that seems very well suited to knowledge management investigation. Law firms are knowledge intensive, and the use of advanced technology may well transform these organizations in the future. This paper reports results from a survey of Norwegian law firms on the use of information technology to support inter-organizational knowledge management. Two predictors of IT support were significant: firm cooperation and knowledge cooperation. Inter-organizational trust was not a significant predictor. An identical survey was conducted in Australia where knowledge cooperation turned out to be the only significant predictor of IT support. Both in Norway and Australia, mainly software and systems such as word processing, electronic mail and legal databases were used. Australian law firms seem to use IT to a larger extent than Norwegian law firms, especially electronic mail, presentations, other law firms' web pages on the Internet, library system, law firm's own Intranet, document systems, and other law firms' web pages on extranets.

The Born Globals

Over the last decade several studies have focused on what have been called International New Ventures or Born Globals – firms that engage in significant international activity a short time after being established. Building on an empirical study of small firms in Norway and France, it was found that more than half of the exporting firms established since 1990 could be classified as Born Globals. This implies that the Born Global issue is not limited to just a few firms, it includes the majority of newly established exporting firms. Furthermore, in terms of global orientation, export strategy, competitive advantages and market situation – the newly established, highly‐involved exporters possess similar characteristics to the old global firms. Also, newly established low level involvement exporters resemble old low level involvement exporters. Examining the differences between newly established firms with high or low export involvement levels revealed that a decision maker’s global orientation and market conditions (home and export markets) are important factors. Because this study found that a firm is either Born Global or “born as local”, the relevance of internationalization process stage models, as described in previous research, came into question. A key implication is that the decisions made during the establishment process of the firm may be more important to future export development than expected, according to the internationalization process models. In many countries export development programs target the established firms in order to help them succeed in export markets. Alternatively, our findings recommend that export assistance programs place their focus on newly established highly‐involved exporters.

Predictors of information technology support for inter‐organizational knowledge management: lessons learned from law firms in Norway

AbstractLaw firms represent an industry that seems very well suited to knowledge management investigation. They are knowledge intensive, and the use of advanced technology may well transform these organizations in the future. This paper reports results from a survey of Norwegian law firms on the use of information technology to support inter‐organizational knowledge management. Two predictors of IT support were significant: firm cooperation and knowledge cooperation. Inter‐organizational trust was not a significant predictor. Software and systems most frequently used include word processing, electronic mail and legal databases. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Firms and Their Distressed Banks: Lessons from the Norwegian Banking Crises (1988-1991)

We use the near-collapse of the Norwegian banking system during the period 1988-91 to measure the impact of bank distress announcements on the stock prices of firms maintaining a relationship with a distressed bank. We find that although banks experienced large and permanent downward revisions in their equity value during the event period, firms maintaining relationships with these banks faced only small and temporary changes, on average, in stock price. In other words, the aggregate impact of bank distress on listed firms in Norway appears small. Our results stand in contrast to studies that document large welfare declines to similar borrowers after crises hit Japan and other East Asian countries. We hypothesize that because banks in Norway are precluded from maintaining significant ownership control over loan customers, Norwegian firms were freer to choose financing from sources other than their distressed banks. We provide cross-sectional evidence to support this hypothesis.

Geography of outsourcing: business service provisions among firms in Norway

This paper examines how business service provision partly relies on user firms’ internal resources, strategies and location depending on what can be obtained locally or is feasible to import elsewhere. Empirical evidence from small‐ and medium‐sized firms in three manufacturing industries in Norway shows that strategies searching for suitable suppliers can be divided into different categories, including one in which choice of service providers reflects a policy commitment to buy locally. A second type of strategy is when the choice of subcontractor is a result of a wide professional search process across regions in order to find the best alternative. A third is where service relations are co‐ordinated by a parent company or entail purchased goods. Finally, there is a group of firms that have left the matter of choice of service suppliers to brokers. These results add new elements to the discussion about the competitive role of industrial relations.

Predictors of IT support for knowledge management in the professions: an empirical study of law firms in Norway

Knowledge management is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Knowledge embedded in an organization’s business processes and an employee’s skills provide a firm with unique capabilities for delivering a product or service to customers. Law firms represent an industry which seems very well suited for knowledge management investigation. Law firms are knowledge intensive and the use of advanced technology may transform these organizations in the future. To examine knowledge management in Norwegian law firms, a study which involved two phases of data collection and analysis was designed. The first phase was a field study of the largest law firm in Norway. The semi-structured interviews conducted in the initial field study documented a strong belief in the potential benefits from knowledge management. The second phase was a survey of Norwegian law firms. Firm culture, firm knowledge and use of information technology were identified as potential predictors of information technology support for knowledge management in law firms in Norway. The extent to which law firms in Norway use information technology to support knowledge management is significantly influenced by the extent firms generally use information technology.

Predictors of it Support for Knowledge Management in the Professions: An Empirical Study of Law Firms in Norway

Knowledge management is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for organizations. Knowledge embedded in an organization's business processes and an employee's skills provide a firm with unique capabilities for delivering a product or service to customers. Law firms represent an industry which seems very well suited for knowledge management investigation. Law firms are knowledge intensive and the use of advanced technology may transform these organizations in the future. To examine knowledge management in Norwegian law firms, a study which involved two phases of data collection and analysis was designed. The first phase was a field study of the largest law firm in Norway. The semi-structured interviews conducted in the initial field study documented a strong belief in the potential benefits from knowledge management. The second phase was a survey of Norwegian law firms. Firm culture, firm knowledge and use of information technology were identified as potential predictors of information technology support for knowledge management in law firms in Norway. The extent to which law firms in Norway use information technology to support knowledge management is significantly influenced by the extent firms generally use information technology.

Strategic Knowledge Networks: The Case of IT Support for Eurojuris Law Firms in Norway

Law firms are knowledge intensive, and the use of advanced technology may well transform these organizations in the future. To examine knowledge management in Norwegian law firms, a study involving four phases of data collection and analysis was designed. The third phase comprised a survey of Norwegian law firms on the use of information technology to support inter-organizational knowledge management. Two predictors, firm co-operation and knowledge co-operation, were significant. The fourth phase was a survey of Norwegian law firms belonging to the Eurojuris network. The Eurojuris law firms had significantly higher IT use, firm co-operation and knowledge co-operation than the other law firms. There was no significant difference in inter-organizational trust, both Eurojuris firms and non-network firms reported that they trusted other law firms.

The impact of regional employment subsidies under wage bargaining

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the impact on employment of regional labour subsidies. A structural model, consistent with cost minimizing behaviour and wage bargaining, is estimated using data on fish-processing firms in Norway. The estimates are consistent with firms minimizing costs and wages being set by an industry level monopoly union. The results suggest that subsidies increase employment considerably. The union only captures a small fraction of the subsidy.

Economic assessment of occupational injuries in furniture industries

A total of 39 furniture manufacturing firms in Norway and Sweden were sampled for a study of occupational accidents. All injuries occurring in the course of one year were investigated ( n = 246) and accident costs were calculated. The firms studied covered 20% of the total number of employees in this industry. The main objective of this paper is to compare two models for costing accidents: the market-pricing model and the spare capacity model. The latter was devised in pursuit of the project aims. In-plant costs calculated with the spare-capacity model were two to five times those arrived at using the market-pricing model. The spare-capacity model most realistically reflected true costs. When the conventional market-pricing model was used, financial losses tended to be underestimated. A substantial portion of the total costs was borne by other than the employing firms.

Relational norms as a supplement to neo-classical understanding of directorates: An empirical study of boards of directors

This article presents some of the conclusions from a study about board of directors in small firms in Norway and Sweden. Theories built on neo-classical and socio-economic assumptions are integrated and a stakeholder approach is adapted. Theories based on neo-classical paradigms have dominated most recent research about boards of directors. These studies have focused on board composition such as insider/outsider ratio, board members stock ownership and board size. Models based on agency theory and legalistic approaches have contributed to the framework for these studies, which mainly discuss the consequences of the board's independence of management in order to be an effective control mechanism. The present study adds a dimension of “interdependence” or closeness to the traditional “independence”-criterion. Interdependence is measured by the degree of relational norms (Macneil, 1980) between directors and management. The study is an associative cross-sectional field survey of 108 joint stock dual leadership hotels in Norway and Sweden and uses a dyadic approach with CEOs and chairmen as respondents. This is the first study conducted using a dyadic approach in understanding directorates. The findings of this research contribute to an increased understanding of the role of directorates and board-management relations. The study illustrates the importance of distinguishing company size in research about directors and management and it shows that a socio-economic approach may have larger explanatory power than theories based on neo-classical paradigms.

Spatial division of labour in Norway: dynamic centre, traditional periphery

Data on the establishment and growth of small firms in Norway between 1976 and 1985 are used to study changes in the spatial division of labour. New and expanding firms in rural areas are mainly found in labour-intensive manufacturing, construction and consumer services. In the large cities, and particularly in the capital region, a much larger part of the growth takes place within new, knowledge-intensive sectors. This new division of labour reflects important structural changes in industry, with growth in service activities and decline in manufacturing. Know-how, as a ‘new’ requirement of production, is regarded as the most important factor for the emerging spatial division of labour.

A small country's high-tech dilemma: the challenge facing new technology-based firms in Norway

Judging from their profit trends, new technology-based firms have not been very successful in Norway. After ten or more years of activity, fewer than half a dozen has accumulated profits over £1 million. Those that risked large initial investments in order to standardize an innovative new technology enjoyed the greatest amount of success. Most firms were able to develop a prototype, but many had great difficulties gearing up for production. Insufficient financing and know-how were the main problems. Firms have had more problems with production than with marketing, but very few seem prepared for the costs and challenges of an international marketing effort. Most lacked a clear marketing strategy or business plan. Financing was often a problem: there was little private investment, and equity capital was often scarce with a mean debt to equity ratio of less than 30%. Most firms received some sort of public funding, usually in support of product development, but so far it has had little impact on profit trend...