Appropriation of economic values in a rights-based fishery

This study integrates resource-based and stakeholder theories to explore how values are generated and appro-priated in a rights-based fishery. We argue that in the fish harvesting industry, a firm's ability to create values is critically dependent on stakeholders outside the firm's boundaries, such as society in general (the principal owner of the natural resource) and the fisheries management of the government. The latter protects the resource from being overfished, and it decides who will get the rights to fish. The empirical context is the seagoing Norwegian purse seine fleet, which has gradually created significant values relative to revenues through the 32-year study period (1985-2016). Specifically, the value appropriation between key stakeholders under a stepwise, more liberalized individual transferable quota system is described and analyzed. The findings show that the vessel owners' share of added values increased gradually from approximately 7% in 1985 to 45% in 2016. Conversely, the labor share dropped from 75% to 42% during the study period. The society's share of the values added (corporate taxes) increased from-5% (net subsidies) to +9% (net tax income). The present study con-cludes by discussing the findings and their policy implications.

Automated summary

This study integrates resource-based and stakeholder theories to examine the generation and appropriation of values in a rights-based fishery. The authors argue that a firm's ability to create values in the fish harvesting industry depends on external stakeholders, such as society and government fisheries management. The empirical context is the Norwegian purse seine fleet, which has seen a gradual increase in value appropriation by vessel owners over the study period (1985-2016).