By Helene Dahl Gottschalk, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: Colourbox

For more than a decade, the narrative has been that North Jutland has lagged behind when it came to productivity – a picture that both business reports, media coverage and the political debate have cemented. But a new analysis from Aalborg University Business School based on register data from Statistics Denmark and on Business Statistics for genuinely active companies now challenges this narrative significantly. The analysis shows that North Jutland is not at the bottom, but rather places itself in a broad middle field, comparable with large parts of Denmark.

In other words, North Jutland's business community is both robust, productive and comparable with the rest of the country. The differences are primarily due to a lower concentration of highly productive companies and fewer knowledge-intensive industries.

Stable ranking since 2016

Based on the data, the researchers can document that North Jutland - along with the Jutland regions and Funen - is in the middle of the field when it comes to productivity. Bornholm, South and West Zealand are at the bottom, while the Capital Region is consistently the region with the highest productivity.

At the same time, the analysis points out:

• That the level of productivity is particularly affected by how many highly productive top companies a region has. Few highly productive companies pull up the average in the most productive regions.
• That industry in North Jutland has higher productivity than the national average, while it is primarily service industries that pull down the level of productivity.
• That large companies in North Jutland are less productive than large companies in the rest of Denmark – but this is because the large companies in North Jutland are in industries that generally have lower productivity.

The analysis concludes that the typical company in North Jutland is about as productive as companies in the rest of the country and in some industries even more productive.

Focus on comparing regional companies

The primary explanation for the new productivity figures in the region is to be found in the way the data in the new analysis has been processed. The researchers have screened out companies with workplaces in more than one region, looked at differences in industry composition and at how many "top companies" the individual regions have, and how this affects the figures.

And it is this method that provides more nuances, a better basis for comparison and a different picture of the state of productivity in North Jutland.

"We wanted to create a more accurate picture of where North Jutland stands in relation to the other regions when it comes to productivity. An average rarely tells the whole story. Now we have far more nuances and which provides much more useful and concrete knowledge about how things really relate to productivity in North Jutland and in the rest of Denmark," says Jonas Eduardsen, one of the three researchers behind the study.

The secret behind high productivity

In addition to mapping out what the productivity level actually looks like across the individual regions, the researchers have also studied what characterises companies with high productivity. 

• Internationalisation (imports, exports and foreign direct investment)
• Capital intensity (investments in machinery and technology)
• Highly educated and qualified labour

With this, the study also contributes to the national debate on regional development and helps strengthen the understanding of how regions can improve their ability to unlock the productivity potential within individual companies.

Contact: 

The three researchers behind the study are:

Jonas Strømfeldt Eduardsen, Associate professor, Aalborg University Business School - jse@business.aau.dk, tlf: 99408364/22923627

Jacob Rubæk Holm, professor, Aalborg University Business School - jrh@business.aau.dk, tlf: 99408247

Jesper Lindgaard Christensen, Associate professor, Aalborg University Business School - jlc@business.aau.dk, tlf: 99408261