A Comparative Study of the Aquaculture Innovation Systems in Quebec's Coastal Region and Norway

Abstract

This paper examines the actors and activities and the institutional–spatial dynamics that characterize innovation and knowledge processes within the aquaculture industry and its support organizations in the coastal region of Quebec, Canada. It aims to identify the main features and components of such support organizations and their roles in entrepreneurial and knowledge processes. Comparing this Canadian case with the more developed Norwegian innovation system in aquaculture, the paper concludes that the market possibilities for the products of aquaculture are almost the same in Norway and Quebec. However, it is the policy and institutional settings, as well as the historical trajectories of the respective innovation systems, which seem to explain the growth of the aquaculture industry in Norway and its less successful development in Quebec. The paper also investigates the conditions and institutional arrangements that may stimulate the building and development of a more mature aquaculture innovation system support in Quebec's coastal region.