Innovation Processes in Aquaculture: Comparing Companies in Norway and Chile

Abstract

In the last 20 years, aquaculture in general and harvested Atlantic salmon in particular has experienced very high growth rates compared to other food products, and at the same time, salmon production has evolved from semi-manual production techniques to the utilization of high-tech capital-intensive production equipment. This development has seriously challenged the environmental considerations and escalated fish health measures to combat existing and evolving problems. As an answer to these challenges and because of relatively high profit margins, aquaculture of harvested Atlantic salmon has also had a speedy innovation path. This chapter will give a theoretical background and an empirical analysis based on data collection at three companies, two in Norway and one in Chile. The focus is on how innovations take place in different stages of the production process, and how these are built into the production and managerial system. The results show, as expected, links between company operations and the actual innovations, but these links do not have the same structure in Norway and Chile. Factors like human and financial resources, technology, and company organization seem to explain most of the differences between how innovations take place in the companies.