The Contrary Forces of Innovation: An Ethnography of Innovation in the Food Industry

Cover......Page 1
Half title......Page 2
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Quote......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Illustrations......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 12
1 Understanding Innovation As Process......Page 16
Innovation in the making: a case study......Page 17
Situating the study......Page 20
Innovation management and process......Page 23
The industrial network approach......Page 27
Actor- network theory and the study of emergence......Page 34
Investigating process and controversy......Page 46
The structure of the book......Page 49
2 Constructing Ethnography......Page 51
Digging into potential cases......Page 58
Gathering materials......Page 60
Reorganising materials: writing ethnography......Page 63
3Introducing the Case Study......Page 70
The idea of fermenting fish......Page 71
Starting product development......Page 72
Market research and technological development......Page 74
Including pre-rigor salmon......Page 76
Shift from Umi No Kami to Salma......Page 77
Scaling up production......Page 78
Market testing: presenting the product......Page 79
Market testing: selling Salma Cured......Page 80
Market testing: selling fresh......Page 82
Summing up the case study......Page 83
Agricultural R&D and the appeal of fish......Page 84
Blue- green innovation......Page 87
Tine’s efforts to industrialise fish......Page 90
The biomarine projects......Page 97
Restructuring Tine Biomarin......Page 100
4 Fermenting Fish: Innovation in Practice......Page 107
Idea and invention: recombining elements......Page 108
Collaboration in the laboratory......Page 112
Funding the Neptun project......Page 114
Testing different types of fish......Page 119
Filing and marketing a patent application......Page 122
Starting the Umi No Kami project......Page 128
Organising the project......Page 130
Recombining materials and stabilising fatty acids......Page 134
Recruiting and controlling micro-organisms......Page 140
Summing up: organising micro-actors......Page 146
Early market research and conceptualisation......Page 148
Types of customers and quality/price......Page 153
Management preconditions and initial intentions......Page 156
International study tour......Page 157
Domestic market research......Page 159
Summing up market opportunities......Page 161
Summing up identity negotiations......Page 162
Reorganising the project and scaling up production......Page 164
The ‘coup’ of Umi No Kami......Page 168
The market system for fish......Page 176
The cold fish technology and pre-rigor processing......Page 182
Bremnes Seashore’s point of view......Page 185
Partnering: negotiating contracts and practice......Page 187
Scaling up production......Page 194
The intervention of micro-organisms......Page 198
Adjusting production practice......Page 200
Making the concept: Salma......Page 206
Looking for users: the marketing tour......Page 211
Catering for Asia......Page 217
A market test for salmon salami in Germany......Page 225
Fish salami unmade......Page 228
5 An Analytic Scheme of InnovationProcesses......Page 234
Staging of innovation processes......Page 237
Mobilising actor-networks......Page 238
Knowledge exploration......Page 239
Interaction and confrontation of sub-processes......Page 240
A network of interconnected processes......Page 243
6 The Contrary Forces of Innovation......Page 245
Realising and stabilising innovations......Page 248
Mobilising and committing to uncertain outcomes......Page 255
Translation and path creation......Page 256
Mobilisation in the face of exploration......Page 261
Exploring knowledge and generating complexity......Page 271
Punctuated learning......Page 272
Exploration as divergent process......Page 275
Interacting and mutual translation of interests......Page 283
Interacting with users......Page 284
Mutual translation of interests......Page 291
7 Conclusion......Page 299
Innovation: processes, controversies and networks......Page 300
Mobilising actor-networks......Page 302
Exploring knowledge......Page 303
Network of interconnected processes......Page 305
Innovation process research......Page 307
Afterword......Page 309
Notes......Page 311
References......Page 318
Index......Page 326