Transformation of institutions: Crisis and change in institutions for Chilean salmon industry

Abstract

Institutions matter for development but there is no clear consensus on how existing institutions can be transformed to better accommodate economic activities in an inclusive and sustainable manner (Acemoglu and Johnson 2012). Institutions can be defined in various ways. In this chapter, we consider institutions as mechanism that shape agents’ behaviors: “a system of social factors that conjointly generate a regularity of behavior” (Greif 2006, 30). Here, a system is considered as the combination of ‘rules of the game’, norms, beliefs, routines, organizations, and interactions that influence the outcome and the behavior of the various agents involved. It is also “self-sustaining salient patterns of social interactions, as represented by meaningful rules that every agent knows and are incorporated as agents’ shared beliefs about how the game is played and to be played” (Aoki 2007, 6). The common point in the above statements is the idea that institutions are the mechanisms that determine the individuals’ behaviors as well as the outcomes of complex interaction among stakeholders.