The Competitive Advantage of Nations: Has the Icelandic whitefish fillet industry created and sustained superior performance over the Norwegian industry?

Abstract

This thesis reveals that the whitefish fillet industry in Iceland is more profitable than the Norwegian whitefish fillet industry. The main reason for this is that the industry in Iceland is structured in a much different way than the Norwegian industry i.e. the firms that constitute the Icelandic whitefish fillet industry can be divided into four different strategic groups. And the more complex the structure of the firms in Iceland are, the more profitable they become. Such structures makes the Icelandic industry more able to pursue differentiated strategies that involves processing and exporting more of fresh whitefish fillets than the Norwegian industry. These strategies are matched by procurement strategies that focus on landing fresh whitefish of higher quality. If it is desirable that the Norwegian industry should become more profitable then they should be allowed to develop into same direction as the Icelandic industry by making the institutional framework less rigid, but that will require managerial, administrative and political grips that is not easy to implement.