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Sustainability Transitions have the potential to significantly influence regional and local change, providing pathways toward sustainable development (Köhler et al., 2019; Strambach and Pflitsch, 2020). This paper investigates how global connections influence sustainability transi-tions, a relatively under-explored area with substantial scientific value and growing public inter-est. Indeed, concepts such as global value chains are increasingly viewed as critical strategies for advancing sustainable development through technology diffusion (Crescenzi and Harman, 2023; Mittenzwei and Schiller, 2025).
Our focus is on how the blue bioeconomy, a transition strategy centred on the sustainable use of ocean resources, can be locally anchored through the networks and interactions established by the aquaculture industry. The blue bioeconomy is a global agenda promoting sustainability, ocean restoration and food security, presenting solutions to meet global food demands and fos-ter sustainable transitions. Norway's bioeconomy strategy aligns with these goals, seeking for a balance between economic growth, social development, food security, and sustainability.
We explore how emerging industries, such as biotech, pharmaceuticals and seaweed cultivation for human consumption, can integrate into the existing production networks of the aquaculture industry. Furthermore, we assess whether the Global Production Networks (GPNs) in which aq-uaculture is embedded can be leveraged to support a transition strategy that results in a more diversified local economy.
Empirically, our study focuses on the emerging industries that are developing from salmon and trout farming in the municipalities around Vestfjorden (Northern Norway). Norway's aquaculture sector is deeply entrenched in an established regime of technologies, regulatory frameworks, and global market dynamics. In the municipalities around Vestfjorden, including the renowned Lofoten Islands, aquaculture is a globally connected industry, with a rapid technological ad-vancement and high innovation, and locally embedded in fishing communities with strong tradi-tion and contradictory socio-environmental narratives. These narratives include literary depic-tions of man versus nature, conservation efforts, and debates over oil extraction, nature conser-vation, heritage preservation, and economic development (Kaltenborn and Linnell, 2019; Karls-son and Dale, 2019). Moving towards a blue bioeconomy represents a strategic effort to shift the existing regime towards sustainable and innovative practices, enabling economic diversification by, for example, supporting spin-off industries that either enhance the sustainability of aquacul-ture (e.g., lower carbon emissions in fish feed production) or foster related emerging industries that can benefit from existing GPNs. Therefore, our paper adopts a critical perspective, ac-knowledging potential contradictions and ambivalences while highlighting the diversification of economic activities emerging from ocean resource use.
By examining how local actors engage with strategic coupling processes to leverage entrepre-neurial potential and create emerging industrial pathways, we assess whether GPNs can effec-tively anchor a transition strategy locally, fostering economic diversification and a more sustain-able use of ocean-based resources. Our research aims to understand whether GPNs facilitate the grounding and shaping of potential blue bioeconomy developments, while also highlighting the environmental, social, and economic ambivalences these industrial shifts may entail. Our findings are derived from semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, local experts, cluster organizations, and public sector officials, supplemented by an extensive review of secondary sources such as policy documents, company reports, and previous research.
References
Crescenzi, R. and Harman, O. (2023) Harnessing Global Value Chains for regional development: How to upgrade through regional policy, FDI and trade. Routledge.
Kaltenborn, B.P. and Linnell, J.D.C. (2019) ‘Who are legitimate stakeholders? National and local perceptions of environmental change in the Lofoten islands, Norway’, Polar Geography, 42(4), pp. 236–252.
Karlsson, M. and Dale, B. (2019) ‘“It belongs to the world.” Oil, conservation and futures in the making in Lofoten, Norway’, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(8), pp. 1452–1470.
Köhler, J. et al. (2019) ‘An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and fu-ture directions’, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 31, pp. 1–32.
Mittenzwei, M. and Schiller, D. (2025) ‘Bioeconomy innovation within traditional value chains: The example of the sugar industry in three European regions’, Progress in Economic Geography, 3(1), p. 100035.
Strambach, S. and Pflitsch, G. (2020) ‘Transition topology: Capturing institutional dynamics in regional development paths to sustainability’, Research Policy, 49(7).
