Working Paper #2009-004
Standards as a platform for innovation and learning in the global economy: a case study of Chilean salmon farming industry
Conventionally, standards are considered as a governance tool in the
production system in a one-directional and hierarchical relationship
between foreign trans-national corporations (TNCs) or global buyers on
one hand and subsidiaries and producers on the other. They were
considered as transmitting necessary specifications of goods – codified
knowledge – to the producers. Despite the fact that this process begins
with a one-way power relationship and associated flow of knowledge and
standards, such one-way flows may become consolidated into two-way
interlinkages when power balances themselves reverse with the
development of collective capability in catching-up countries. In such a
context, standards increasingly act as a catalyst for creating
collective interfaces where diverse knowledge from horizontal and
vertical relationships – local and global, tacit and codified, and buyer
and producer – intercept and converge to promote interactions and
learning for those involved. The Chilean salmon farming industry is
examined to understand how standards compliance enhanced collective
capability.
- Keywords
-
- Standards
- Capability
- Governance
- Catching up
- JEL codes
-
- L15
- L
- 66
- O
- 13
- UNU-MERIT
- Working
- Papers
- ISSN
- 1871-9872
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Iizuka, M. (2009). Standards as a platform for innovation and learning in the global economy: a case study of Chilean salmon farming industry (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2009-004). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=3589