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This chapter is a journey into the ontological significance of place in consideration of the Atlantic Tasmanian salmon industry and its challenges to the ethical discourse around the social license to operate (SLO) beyond the oxymoron of a name. It centres the discourse around the salmon itself. A once totem animal, responsible for the balance of Canada’s abundant ecosystem, now reduced to a mere source of protein, manipulated, and commodified by Tasmania’s ‘big business’ and against the SLO of Flanagan’s ‘Toxic’. It applies Ortega y Gasset’s mid-twentieth century solution to the problem of our western disconnection from place to the current neoliberal political framework. This welcomes an inclusive dialogue with kinship structures of the Mi’kmaq peoples reflected also in the ontological narrative of the First Nations people of Tasmania. This multidisciplinary journey necessitates a concept of the SLO founded upon ethical responsibility and a cultural license if it is to genuinely hold to account the corporate sovereign.

The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that revisions occur to the research question, method, theory, and context as an integral part of the research process.

Changes within networks receive less research attention, although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions. This study analyzes changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The study develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalization for comparing perceptions of change, where the study introduces a template model of dottograms to systematically analyze differences in perceptions. The study then applies the model to analyze findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the chapter provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.

The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and across-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is the suggestion that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position to gain access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and the network change that has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.

Another major contribution of the study is the analysis of the role that network pictures play in actors' efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far, the relevant literature discusses network pictures mainly as a theoretical concept. Finally, the chapter concludes with important implications for management practice.

This chapter combines a global value chain methodology with the case of the development of the farmed Atlantic salmon industry in Chile to inform discussions regarding the globalization of economy and society. The research documents the shifting structure of the value chain from the north to the south as Chile replaced northern Europe as the locus of production and the major world supplier of farmed Atlantic salmon. Farmed salmon was supported by the Chilean state as part of its export-oriented industrialization model that attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) from northern TNCs. Chile's low costs of production combined with growing environmental problems in the north and global retailers' demand for large quantities of low-cost product resulted in the restructuring of the farmed Atlantic-salmon value chain as northern capital sourced the south as a lucrative production platform to service northern consumers. A detailed investigation of the rise in dominance of the firm Marine Harvest is provided to illustrate the process of industry concentration the Chilean farmed-salmon industry. This model has generated a legitimation crisis related to environmental degradation and labor abuses resulting in social movement organization both nationally and internationally. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Wal-Mart Effect on the agrifood industry in particular and in the farmed-salmon industry in particular.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate relationships between engagement activities and social reporting practices in a controversial and environmentally sensitive industry. The interactions investigated were not restricted to stakeholder relationships but included other communications between different stakeholders.

This paper presents a case study approach framed within a contested political arena. Data were gathered using multiple methods including interviews with salmon farming organisations, stakeholders, rule‐enforcers, issue amplifiers and political institutions.

All arena participants used social reports in their interactions to communicate the social, environmental and economic consequences of salmon farming. Different social reporting practices appeared to be reflexively related to the competing motivations of different stakeholders. However, social reporting in Scottish salmon farming was fragmented, driven by many different factors and did not necessarily lead to a resolution of the conflicts within this arena.

Researching social reporting should consider the co‐existence and co‐evolution of different social reports, competing motivations and engagement tactics of stakeholders. This paper identifies the construction of holistic reports from multiple reports and issue amplification as two research methods to engage in social and environmental policy debates.

This paper presents empirical evidence from an under‐researched industry, which has the potential to develop the theoretical understanding of social reporting. It also introduces the arena concept as a useful tool in further social reporting research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of biotechnological inventions and innovations on the organization of the burgeoning Atlantic salmon farming industry.

The authors study how novel biotechnological inventions are utilized within Atlantic salmon aquaculture. The authors compare the findings with the historical development path of invention and innovation in the plant sector, and explore parallels and dissimilarities between the plant breeding sector and Atlantic salmon aquaculture.

The innovation capacity within Atlantic salmon aquaculture is distinct from the plant sector, but nonetheless likely to become equifinal. Similar to plants, the female fecundity of salmon is high. Hybridization, which is an effective mechanism for protection of investments in high fecundity organisms, is less effective in salmon farming because the genetic variability is higher in salmon. Hybridization provides plant breeders with significant power over grow-out farmers. The development path in Atlantic salmon sector is distinctively dissimilar from plants, but salmon farmers nonetheless appear to move toward the structural configurations that are parallel to the plant sector. The significance of new breeding technologies in Atlantic salmon farming ascends, and will play an increasingly important role in the further development of this industry.

The study contributes to the prevailing knowledge of how inventions and innovations influence the future development of the Atlantic salmon industry.

Biotechnological inventions are evolving within aquaculture. So far, the implications of novel biotechnological possibilities for the Atlantic salmon sector have been underanalyzed. The paper explores these implications from the perspective of political economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate market competition for three product types of salmon (smoke, fresh and whole salmon) to understand whether supermarkets are exercising market power over salmon consumers in the UK retail market.

Competition and the corresponding pricing conduct among supermarkets are tested by applying dynamic structural simultaneous system equations and using similar data set used by Jaffry et al. (2003).

The results indicate that the market is competitive for fresh fillets and whole salmon but retailers appeared to exert some level of market power for smoke salmon. The hypothesis that market power is the same for all three products in the study was rejected; further indicating that the market for fresh products are competitive while retailers may be exercising market power over consumers for smoke salmon.

Current data limitations did not allow the investigation to cover the past few years in the modelling process. However, the results are still relevant as there have been no major structural changes in aquaculture products retailing landscape in the recent past.

Concerns over the supermarkets’ exercise of market power over consumers have prompted the competition authorities to continue investigating the situation in the UK supermarket sector since 1996. The most recent investigation by competition authorities was in 2006. In all cases, no evidence of market power was found despite increased market concentration. Results from this study generally uphold the claim of the competition authorities in the UK.

This is the first study to use a model within a structural econometric framework of firms to test for competitiveness of salmon products in the UK market place.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how different policy perspectives or logics regarding industry organising affect network interaction, with particular focus on how the availability of resources is organised.

To examine this, the authors compare two cases from the Norwegian seafood industry: in the pelagic industry, the main resource (mackerel) is caught at sea by fishing vessels and trade is restricted by an auction system, whereas in the salmon industry, the main resource (farmed salmon) is an industrial product produced at fish farms and there are no such restrictions.

The results indicate that conditions under which resources are available to a network have strong effects on connected relationships: in the pelagic industry, interaction in the network becomes supplier-directed in an attempt to reduce the uncertainty created by unstable and restricted availability of resources, whereas in the salmon industry the interaction becomes customer directed as resource availability is stable and predictable. Here the actors can broaden the scope of interaction and they can direct their efforts to solve their customers’ problems, whereas this is difficult in the pelagic industry. The authors conclude that policy considerations play a major role in these effects. If the resource (fish) is seen as a commodity and the interaction is seen as a market mechanism, the policies designed to facilitate the exchange of resources will be beneficial for the actors directly involved, but may have unintended negative consequences for indirect relationships.

For policy makers this implies that whenever developing an industrial policy there are strong reasons to look beyond the single transaction in order to create policies that are effective and/or beneficial for all involved and connected parties.

The fisheries and aquaculture industry has observed substantial reduction in the demand for farmed Atlantic salmon after the food incidence of polychlorinated biphenyls in the product. To regain consumer confidence in the quality and safety of the product new policies, such as advanced traceability and identity preservation systems in the fisheries and aquaculture industry have been suggested. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ preferences to pay a premium price for certified farmed Atlantic salmon that is passed through various quality and traceability systems in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

The paper uses the contingent valuation (CV) method by estimating a probit regression model to assess consumers’ preferences for certified farmed Atlantic salmon. In particular, the paper measures consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) a premium price to purchase the product. The CV method is the most widely used methodology in measuring individuals’ attitudes toward purchasing certified products. To estimate the parameters of the model, the authors carried out a consumer survey in spring 2010 and successfully completed 120 questionnaires in the province.

The paper provides empirical insights about how households are interested in consuming certified farm-raised Atlantic salmon by paying an additional premium price to purchase the product. The results of the study show that although consumers believe that traceability methods, on average, will increase the price of certified farmed Atlantic salmon their preferences toward the consumption of the product will not be changed.

Since the paper uses the CV method to evaluate individuals’ preferences for certified farm-raised Atlantic salmon, the authors also suggest another study that uses a non-hypothetical choice experimental approach to elicit households’ WTP a premium price for the product.

This paper shows how consumers’ decisions to purchase certified farm-raised Atlantic salmon can be affected by a series of demographic, socio-economicand other variables that reflect consumers’ awareness of issues surroundings farmed Atlantic salmon and quality assurance.

This paper's aim is to develop an understanding of how responsiveness in a supply network may be approached from a combined relationship marketing (RM) and supply chain management (SCM) view in a complete seafood supply network context.

The paper takes the form of a case study of the upstream part of an integrated supply network from broodstock to predominately export sales.

Developing responsiveness involves two types of competence; technically generating value through the supply network through product transformations and knowing what the end‐user perceives as value. SCM is proposed as generating value through technical product‐transforming processes while RM as facilitating customer sensing through developed conceptions of value perception in the context of business relationships. Intertwining SCM and RM competencies to achieve responsive product supply is proposed by using Alderson's largely unnoticed transvection understanding of complete marketing channels.

The paper is a novel combination of business management fields evoking differences and complementarities to develop business relationships through intertwining RM and SCM to secure value realisation from an end‐user perspective from a multi‐tier supply network perspective. In business practice this approach provides a mindset and some developed models useful in both strategic planning of a company's role in a wider supply chain setting as well as guidance regarding the purpose of cross‐functional teamwork in operations.

This study aims to focus on how companies operating in international food commodity markets can improve their long-term competitiveness and profitability upon financial pressure. Management can choose between generic strategies of either cost leadership or enhanced value adding by differentiation and innovative marketing strategies. The aim of the paper is to highlight key findings from a case study perspective.

The research is set within the farmed salmon sector in the world’s second largest producing country, Chile, which is also a fast growing emerging economy in Latin America. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with General Managers of this global industry.

Unexpectedly, our findings show that executives preferred competitive strategy of cost reduction rather than differentiation. Based on previous research, we recommend managers of individual firms and trade associations to play down commoditisation and to pursue differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.

Practitioners from Latin America may learn on empirical considerations of international marketing strategies taking this competitive global industry as an example. An overall cost leadership strategy is not sufficient in a mature industry, and customer-oriented strategies are needed more than production-oriented strategies. Clustered firms are recommended to benefit from differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.