The Spatial and Regional Economics Research Centre Virtual Visiting Speaker Series continues with Prof Marte Solheim from the University of Stavanger Business School, Norway.
| Date | Wednesday, 27 January |
| Time | 12 noon |
| Register | Contact Dr Declan Jordan to register. All are welcome. |
About the paper
Firms in knowledge-intensive service industries (KIS) depend on the skills and networks of employees. They tend to locate in cities that provide privileged access to information spillovers and rich opportunities for learning-by-recruiting, raising the question of how KIS work to expand, integrate, and exploit the networks and knowledge of their workers. To address this question, we investigate how the composition of worker experience described in the dimensions related (RV) versus unrelated (URV) variety and firms’ use of ‘creativity stimulating methods’ (CSMs) (brainstorming sessions, job rotation and multi-disciplinary groups) influence innovation. We find that CSMs have stronger direct impacts on innovation than employees’ work-life experience. However, complementary and substitutive relationships are both evident: The strongest association of experience with innovation is detected when URV increases from very low to moderately low levels in specialised firms where CSMs are absent. The direct effect of URV on innovation is more moderate and significant only around the mean when CSMs are implemented; however, URV also has the indirect effect of increasing the probability that CSMs are applied.
About the Speaker
Marte Solheim is Associate Professor and Head of the Stavanger Centre for Innovation Research, at the University of Stavanger Business School, Norway. She carries out research on diversity and innovation, combining insights from organizational theory, innovation studies and regional studies. She is particularly interested in understanding how innovation is inspired when a variety of diverse knowledge intersect, and the contextual factors affecting this association. She is actively engaged in the public debate on migration, diversity and inclusion and innovation-related issues in Norway, and is invited to speak at national diversity conferences, as well as to national policy makers, political spheres, and other institutions. Marte regularly provides lectures to the Certification in Diversity Management at the National Centre of Diversity Management and acts as expert advisor on diversity and integration projects. She is member of the prestigious Academy of Young Researchers in Norway and is on the steering committee of the Smart City Research Network at the University of Stavanger. She is Regional Studies Association Ambassador to Norway.