Meat processing and animal by-products: Industrial dynamics and institutional settings

Chapter 7 conducts a comparative analysis of the meat processing and animal by-product (ABP) industries in Norway and Denmark. The analysis compares the two countries’ sectoral innovation systems for meat processing and handling of ABPs by focusing on the constituting parts of an innovation system: actors, networks, institutions, knowledge and technologies.

In particular, the chapter emphasises the role of regulations in shaping input and demand and thereby the value creation dynamics of the industry. Moreover, we find that the large differences in terms of geographical and industrial structures, size and volume of ABPs likewise condition value creation processes differently in the two systems.

In sum, the chapter confirms that the co-evolutionary development of the ABP industry is conditioned by place-specific factors such as industrial structure, size and geography as well as institutional settings that influence actors’ search for value creation and market opportunities. The chapter contributes to a better understanding of how market opportunities co-evolve with institutional and structural conditions given by the sectoral and national innovation systems.