NorwegianOWPandPVreport

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In the literature on internationalisation, firm size has been found to be of importance to firms’ ability
to export products or services to international markets. shows that smaller firms
(measured by both number of full-time equivalents and revenues) consider a lack of a home market
as more challenging than larger firms.
A home market is considered important for a number of reasons, such as geographic proximity, access
to technology, knowledge about market trends, and for testing new products and services. Considering
the relative importance of different barriers presented in in section we find that the
lack of home market as a barrier is probably less influenced by increased geographical distance to
markets but perhaps stronger linked to the challenges associated with testing and verifying technology
and products.
The observation that geographical distance to markets is not a significant challenge (se
may be explained by the fact that the main international market for offshore wind is located on the
Norwegian doorstep in the North Sea. shows that just below half of the firms responded
that the North Sea fully or partly replaces the need for a domestic market for offshore wind in Norway.
However, this still leaves us with more than half of the firms responding that close proximity to the
North Sea (keeping in mind that many of the firms already have activities in the O&G industry in the
North Sea) does not alleviate the barrier raised by a lack of a domestic marked.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Percentage of firms
Total full-time equivalents in firm (2014)
50 or less 51-500 More than 500
Total firm revenue (2014)
Less than € 10 m € 10 - 50 m More than € 50 m
Lack of home market more challenging for smaller firms
Figure 5-31 Percentage of firms responding that lack of a home market makes it difficult to succeed in international
markets. Depending on firm size measured by firm FTEs and revenue.
Source: Data from survey and