"In Oman the traditional date production could revive through a process of constructing competitive advantage", says expert from Sweden
Germany and Nordic countries are good examples
MUSCAT Diffusing knowledge and creating unique products through innovation is a more sustainable way of competition among businesses than competing traditionally through low cost production, says Professor Dr. Bjørn Asheim, Director of CIRCLE (Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy), and Chair in Economic Geography of Lund University in Sweden. CIRCLE participates in many European research projects analyzing the innovation potential of different regions and industries to identify how they can develop competitive advantages. Professor Bjørn Asheim recently held a one week academic seminar titled: "Technology, Innovation and Regional Development" at the Department of Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development of the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech). "Germany as well as the Nordic countries are good examples of countries that have promoted innovation as the main way of competing through close links between the three stakeholders," said Professor Bjørn Asheim. Those European countries who apply an innovation policy are doing well, unlike Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
According to Professor Bjørn Asheim inventions need to be commercialized and diffused through Information technology. Interfaces need to be created between the producers of knowledge, for example universities, and the users of knowledge such as the industry.
Innovations are inventions taken into the market. A close link between the industry, research institutes and the public sector can speed up this process. Innovations are generated through use of different types of knowledge, the analytical, meaning science-based knowledge, the synthetic, engineering-based and the symbolic knowledge, which is art based. "No type of knowledge should a priory be considered superior with respect to generating economic growth and jobs. Knowledge creation and innovation can take place in all kind of industries but is done in different ways. It needs different kinds of knowledge and skills and requires different forms of innovation support, " said Professor Bjørn Asheim.
Regional innovation systems are created through interaction of universities and knowledge exploitation subsystems, such as firms in regional clusters. In the Gulf region, the traditional date production could revive through a process of constructing competitive advantage. "In Europe there is a large demand for organic products, however, a high quality of the dates has to be secured" said Professor Bjørn Asheim. In addition, there is a symbolic aspect of improving competitiveness, as such niche products need to be sold along with a story. "You have to tell a story about the product and start a branding campaign. If you succeed you have constructed a competitive advantage. You have to differentiate your product from the others."
Like the tourism industry: "You have to make the tourist destination unique so that those who can pay are attracted," said Professor Bjørn Asheim. In his home country Sweden the world's first ice hotel was opened and is very successful. "That hotel was unique and created a lot of attention around the world". Alike the Saadiyat Islands in Abu Dhabi and the development of five museums including Louvre, Guggenheim built by world renowned architects . "Other places create only one icon, here five in one time. It would be too expensive to imitate and too difficult to come up with a similar unique idea. There is a huge potential for generating both niche and mass market tourism - mass market from China and India and niche tourism from Europe and North America," said Professor Bjørn Asheim. However, the development in one region needs to be balanced with the development in other regions. "Unbalanced development can result in more rapid growth in per capity income development in one region only, very often in the capital. Policy interventions are needed to secure a more even development between regions with respect to the level of living of the population," said Professor Bjørn Asheim.
Professor Bjørn Asheim's current research projects include among others a Swedish Research Council funded project on the globalisation of R&D and Innovation focusing on India and China as well as a European Science Foundation project on 'Constructing Regional Advantage', which he is the coordinator of, with participation from Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, Check republic and Turkey. New projects include a Nordic project on organisational innovation in the health sector, and a Swedish funded project for a comparative Nordic study on 'Next generation regional innovation policy'. Professor Bjørn Asheim has many international publications within these subjects.
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© Press Release 2012
