Work

Ecological development practices of marine ranching enterprises in China: Case studies of early movers

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Marine ranching can help solve the dilemma facing food systems by providing more food for humans under the constraints of resources and the environment. Many marine ranching enterprises have committed to ecological development to help advance the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Little is known, however, about the drivers, initiatives, and performance implications of this behavior. To fill this gap, we conducted case studies of five early movers among marine ranching enterprises in China. These firms took both fishery output and environmental protection into consideration and achieved significant results. We identified six main drivers: “synergistic benefits,” “sustainable business value,” “government incentive and supervision,” “sense of social responsibility,” “environmental pressure,” and “market enforcement.” The main initiatives, meanwhile, were “habitat restoration,” “ecological production,” “science and technology innovation,” “ecological operation,” and “ecological management.” We showed that businesses' ecological development practices can generate synergistic benefits, including economic, environmental, and social benefits. Moreover, based on our key path analysis of early movers' ecological development practices, we developed an ecological development model to illustrate their successful experiences. This model can help guide other businesses toward fulfilling their ecological development commitments.

Source: Sustainable Development

DOI: 10.1002/sd.2575

Authors: Ye‐Cheng Wang, Yi‐Pin Fan, Yuan‐Wei Du

Institutions: Ocean University of China, Yunnan University

Language: English

Topic: Environmental Sustainability in Business

Subfield: Marketing

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Life below water

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Social Science Fund of China