Norway

This chapter consists of sections on Introduction, Historical Overview, Indigenous Sámi Entrepreneurship in Norway, The Environment for Entrepreneurship and Toward the Future. Introduction, as follows:Oxholm described the Kingdom of Norway as the “Northernmost civilized country” (1939), p. 493. It covers 324,219 square kilometres of mainland, bounded by Finland, Russia and Sweden to the east, with the North Sea to the west, the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Skagerrak Straits to the south. At the head of a fjord, its capital is Oslo (Exhibit 17.1) — known until 1925 by its Danish name, Christiania. After Bergen, other important centres include Stavanger (Exhibit 17.2) and Trondheim (Exhibit 17.3) — formerly Trondhjem. Norway has had one of the largest shipping fleets in the world.Norwegian industrialist Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771–1824) participated in numerous ventures, including a mill for which he obtained property rights without payment — in exchange for free use of the mill. Also significant was Sam Eyde (1866–1940), founder of Norsk Hydro. Among more recent success stories is that of Olav Thon (1923–), who worked his way from poor farm-boy to wealthiest resident of Norway. He bought his first building in 1951. Now his Olav Thon Group is the largest private real estate company in Norway. In 2013, he announced he was giving away the largest part of his fortune to a foundation. Erlanger wrote, “Mr. Thon, having worked since the age of 7 as a shepherd … thinks young Norwegians have gone soft with oil wealth and the welfare system: ‘You can’t feed a cat with cream and food in the kitchen and expect him to go catch mice’” (2014, p. 3)…