TRIPLE HELIX noms.pmd

O-005Innovation systems in Norwegian fisheriesProfessor Thorvald Gran, DAO, University of Bergen, NorwayBjørn Hersoug (2005) describes Norwegian fisheries regulation as a movement from open access within publicly determinedtime periods and total quotas to quasi individual tradable quotas to accepted fishers. That is a movement from public to marketbased management of fisheries. That movement did not simplify the administration of the national fisheries. It was a system thatdeveloped incrementally from one problem situation to the next, based in the relative power of the different stakeholders and withthe actual regulation as a compromise.Christensen/Hallenstvedt (2005) argue that the Norwegian state already in the 1920’s wanted a national interest organisationthat could participate with one voice in policy making. State and organisation merged to a semi-corporate system. In 1964government subsidies to fisheries were channelled officially through the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association (Main agreement).The Association trained and delivered personnel into leading positions in the fisheries segment of the Norwegian government atboth ministry and directorate levels. Subsidies reach maximum in early 1980’s, 3,5 billion NOK, then petered out over the next10 years.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structure and power of networks in the triple helix that were active in the formationand change of regulation regimes in Norwegian fisheries. That change can be defined as ‘from open access to the commons toprivate ownership of quotas’. The rules of those regulation regimes over time, their formation, content and their regulatory powerare described in Hersoug 2005, from the standpoint of a university based investigator and in Christensen/Hallenstvedt 2005 asseen from the major interest organisation, the Fishermen’s Association. The paper contributes to the understanding of nationaland regional innovation systems and the organisation and functioning of them in Norwegian fisheries, both in wild fisheries andfish farming. The problem is how the IS in its triple helix context affects the balance between work places and profits in fisheriesand the sustainable use of the natural resources in the sea. Through comparisons of a) national regimes and b) regulationregimes in other north Atlantic communities, Scotland, Iceland and Newfoundland, the study tries to indentify traits of thoseinnovation systems, given their context, that are best at striking a viable balance between profits and sustainability (Gran 2008).The paper looks at the innovation system from three angles: 1) from the vantage point of Searlean decision-making theory,suggesting that obligations are the main materials for finding desire-independent reasons for action; 2) from the Freeman/Perez/Reinert (2008) perspective that innovativeness is the prime capability of the modern western societies and that a conscious,wilful government in the limited public sector is a key sustainer of that innovativeness; and 3) the the Tyre/von Hippel (1997)perspective suggesting, with Chesbrough (2003), that open innovation, allowing new participants into decision-making and anetworking with all three nodes in the triple helix is usually the best condition for sustainable and efficient problem solutions/regulation regimes.The finding is that regulation of Norwegian fisheries has continuously been biased towards overfishing, prioritising private sectorlarge fishers and fish producing firms and international markets, with the effect of weakening and even destructing local coastalfisheries communities in Norway. The hypothesis is that the degree of bias is a product of the relative power of public and privatesector actors in the democratic system, modified by the ability of local communities, environmental organisations etc. inpermeating into the innovation systems networks.References.- Chesbrough, H. (2003) The Logic of Open Innovation. Calfornia Management Review 45.- Christensen/Hallenstvedt (2005). I kamp om havets verdier. Norges Fiskarlags historie.- Gran, T. (2008) Learning- and innovation systems in marine sectors, the north Atlantic rim. The ISMS project. The cases ofNorway, Scotland, Iceland and Newfoundland.- Hersoug Bjørn (2005). Closing the commons. Norwegian Fisheries from open access to private property, Eburon.- Reinert, E. (2008) How rich countries got rich and why poor countries stay poor. Constable and Robinson.- Tyre, Marcie and Eric von Hippel (1997) "The Situated Nature of Adaptive Learning in Organizations" Organization Science,vol 8, No 1Madrid, October 20, 21 & 22 - 2010127