Abstract

Previous research has shown that Norwegian aquaculture did not report being much affected by COVID-19 but had a strong response to the pandemic regarding cost reductions, market development, and business network development. In this study, we take a step further and investigate if COVID-19 affectedness and responsiveness were consistent across the aquaculture industry’s value chain. Also, we investigate if aquaculture industry involvement explains how firms were affected by and responded to the pandemic. Reexamining survey data from Norway shows that the firms, independent of value chain position or industry involvement, were not hit particularly hard by COVID-19 compared to firms in the manufacturing industry as a reference group. In addition, we show that the response to the pandemic in terms of cost reductions, market development, and business network development was strong across the value chain – chiefly among firms involved in producing or selling sea products and providing equipment and consulting services – compared to firms in the manufacturing industry. Finally, the response to the pandemic was consistently strong, independent of industry involvement. We conclude that aquaculture firms, across the value chain and independent of industry involvement, had a strong positive response to COVID-19, albeit not much affected.

摘要

此前的研究表明，挪威水产养殖业并未报告受到COVID-19的太大影响，但在降低成本、市场开发和业务网络发展方面对这一流行病做出了强有力的反应。在这项研究中，我们进一步调查了整个水产养殖业价值链中 COVID-19 的影响和响应是否一致。此外，我们还调查了水产养殖业的参与是否可以解释企业如何受到这一流行病的影响和应对。重新审视挪威的调查数据表明，与作为参考组的制造业企业相比，这些企业，无论价值链地位或行业参与程度如何，都没有受到 COVID-19 的特别严重的打击。此外，我们还展示了在降低成本、开发市场、与制造业企业相比，整个价值链的业务网络发展强劲——主要是涉及生产或销售海产品以及提供设备和咨询服务的企业。最后，对这一流行病的反应始终强劲，与行业的参与无关。我们的结论是，整个价值链中且独立于行业参与的水产养殖公司对 COVID-19 做出了强烈的积极反应，尽管影响不大。