title: Knowledge dynamics in two Faroese seafood clusters: innovations in a highly tacit environment
Creators: name: Jensen, Tórheðin Jónsveinsson
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2021

description: Little is known about innovation in small low-tech clusters in peripheral locations.
Moreover, little is known about how tacit knowledge dynamics contribute to the 
innovative power of clusters.
The Faroese seafood cluster is a highly tacit environment, yet despite its small, 
remote and low-tech nature, it stands out as highly innovative in the seafood 
industry. This exploratory, process organisational study (Langley and Tsoukas 2016) 
provides insight into the tacit knowledge dynamics underlying the cluster's 
innovative capacity by comparing two case studies of major innovators in different
parts of the cluster: Salmon farming and one in traditional pelagic sea fishing. 
Process studies focus on how and why things emerge; the primary aim of this work 
is to understand how innovation emerges from tacit knowledge dynamics in each of 
the two subclusters by comparing the interactive knowledge practices in operation. 
Traditionally, research on industry clusters apply quantitative methods, including 
economic data seeking explanation at a macro level. This research adopts a 
social constructionist epistemology within a largely qualitative case study design, 
given the nature of tacit knowledge dynamics at all levels. It uses the critical 
incident technique as the primary method for investigating the pattern of tacit 
knowledge dynamics in each case. 30 semi-structured interviews were 
conducted with key individuals involved in 35 innovations: 20 in fishing and 15 in 
salmon farming. Data were triangulated with multiple datasets, including micro-data. 
Findings show that the tightly know Faroese community supports particularly 
close trusted ties which contribute strongly to tacit knowledge access in 
innovations. This is particularly true in fishing, where relationship ties are may be 
described as intricate and intimate. Ties in salmon farming are strong but
supplemented with dialogue in weaker network ties outside the cluster. Both 
firms in the cluster are part of the same web of knowledge relationships but draw 
on tacit knowledge to varying degrees, depending on whether the innovation is 
radical or incremental and where the innovation occurs. In fishing, the innovations 
arise primarily in operational settings, often generated through practical know-how of life at sea.
In contrast, salmon farming is more strategically driven, and scientists and 
researchers’ technical knowledge is combined with that of people at the 
operational level. Local Faroese university and R&amp;D institutions provide little input 
into tacit knowledge dynamics in the fishing sub-cluster. In salmon farming, ties 
to foreign clusters and R&amp;D institutions add explicit knowledge to combine with 
local tacit knowledge. This may account for the more significant number of radical 
innovations in salmon farming. It appears that cluster proximity between fishing 
and salmon farming is complementary in terms of knowledge movement, but 
network theory may be more critical in salmon farming. Theoretically, this study 
contributes primarily to cluster theory by developing a model that evidences how 
tacit knowledge dynamics allow small and remote clusters to become innovative. 
The dynamics at macro meso and micro level within two parts of the cluster are 
complementary but distinct: Tacit knowledge moves in fishing through very close 
community ties and practical know-how; In salmon farming, the cluster’s 
proximity is supplemented by explicit technical knowledge drawn from foreign 
networks.