Archive
Vol. 1, issue 1, 2007
The Nordic shaping of innovation in Estonia:
Case studies from mobile communications and e-government
Per Högselius
Abstract
The paper examines how the Nordic and Baltic innovation activities in ICT have become linked to each other, and what these links have meant for innovative performance in the Baltics. High-performing innovation systems can be regarded as the very core or ‘energy centre’ of any modern country with future oriented ambitions, and the relevance of studying Nordic-Baltic integration from the perspective of innovation should therefore be self-explanatory. In particular, the article focuses on Estonia’s links to Sweden and Finland, aiming to explain how these links have influenced Estonia’s innovative strength in ICT. The results presented here are generally in line with earlier research on the foreign shaping of creative innovation from a catch-up perspective. However, the Estonian case deepens our understanding of the ways in which interaction with the foreign environment influences the build-up of innovative strength.