Environmental threats and rising consumer demand pose critical challenges for the seafood industry. Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), an efficient, land-based technology to cultivate aquatic organisms, is poised to address these challenges. Stakeholder opposition, however, has deterred progress on many proposed RAS developments. This relationship between industrial actors and stakeholders is characterized by social license to operate (SLO), which entails the informal, often tacit judgment of an industrial actor’s right to do business as intended. Research concerning novel or contentious technologies suggests that SLO is informed by stakeholders’ values, risk perceptions related to the industry, and trust in industry actors, among other factors. While SLO is widely referenced in the aquaculture industry – and often depicted as a developmental stage model – limited work has tested such a model with empirical data, and none has used the RAS context in particular.
This research builds on past qualitative and quantitative studies completed by the authors that have sought to understand the drivers of SLO by focusing on contemporary RAS development in several U.S. communities. Using an online survey with an embedded experiment – a series of vignettes featuring news media depictions of a hypothetical RAS facility development – the present research empirically tested the drivers of SLO stage progression, and how these factors may change over time as the hypothetical RAS facility advances through critical stages in community engagement and permitting. Rural and urban U.S. residents (n = 2200) were surveyed to determine whether sentiments about RAS development differ across these two categories. Understanding the influence of environmental and cultural values, trust, and risk perceptions on SLO at varying stages of facility development is a novel approach to assess SLO progression. Analysis for this survey is ongoing and focuses on the how these key factors drive RAS development support among the sample. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we will determine the influence of values and risk perceptions on interpretation of the RAS development vignettes, and determine the stage and time ordered judgement making process that defines the SLO model.
Findings can provide decision-makers such as RAS professionals, municipal governments, extension agents, and regulators with evidence-based guidance on how to communicate with stakeholders and facilitate relationships with community partners, increasing the likelihood that the U.S. seafood industry can continue to explore domestic RAS development in a just and equitable manner. Ultimately, the project will contribute to guiding deliberative processes between communities and RAS developers – thus, helping to bridge the gap between researchers, communities, and practitioners.