A tale of two Scandinavian cities - A case study of public health innovation in the Oslo and Copenhagen regions

Abstract

This thesis is a case study of public health innovation in the Oslo and Copenhagen regions. The two cases were chosen because they closely fit the ideal for a most similar systems design, as the Norwegian and Danish societies and political structures are very similar, yet their focus for innovation, at least insofar as it is presented in their strategy documents, differ. This thesis aims to investigate whether Denmark and Norway have different approaches to innovation in the health sector, and if so, uncover why they have different innovation strategies, and the outcomes of these strategies as far as they can be identified. Differing strategies could entail focus on science and research based innovation versus user-driven innovation or service innovation, degree of involvement of the public versus private sector in innovation and so on. Once these differences have been described, potential answers to why these differences exist will be presented.