As a technical alternative to strengthening global environmental regulations and increasing domestic oil costs due to the climate crisis, the government (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries) has been implementing the technological development of hybrid commercial fishing boats since 2021. This study empirically analyzes the awareness of fisheries workers (n=568) and fisheries-related stakeholders (n=151) regarding the hybrid fishing boats and evaluates strategic competitive advantages of the boat-building technology using the VRIO (Value, Rarity, Inimitability, Organization) framework. The Korean fisheries sector currently faces worsening business conditions due to structural challenges such as resource depletion (57.6%), labor shortages (30.8%), and rising fuel costs (81.5%). Consequently, the tax-free fuel subsidy program has emerged as a critical factor for sustaining fisheries operations, with 91.9% of fishers identifying the program as essential for business stability and 63.6% indicating they would cease operations if the program were abolished. Under these circumstances, hybrid electric vessels are gaining attention as a promising alternative for reducing fuel costs, with 32.2% of respondents expressing a willingness to adopt such vessels. Conditional demand analysis revealed that 37% of fishers showed willingness to purchase if fuel savings reached 30~50%, with an average acceptable price increase of 16.8% over conventional boats and an average desired government subsidy rate of 56.3%. The VRIO results show that the technology holds competitive advantages in value, rarity, and inimitability, but falls short in the organization dimension. The results indicate the need for improvements in institutional infrastructure such as dedicated organizations, process standardization, and a structured supply system.

Around the 1980s, with government’s promotion and dissemination policies for FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics) of the government as a main material of fishing boats, approximately 97% of the entire fishing boats in Korea have utilized FRP until now. Nevertheless, diverse social and environmental issues have emerged due to the susceptibility to fire and the generation of substances detrimental to human health during the construction process of FRP fishing vessels. Especially, the high disposal cost and the limitation of recycling technology in the disposal process of FRP fishing boats have elicited attention to circular economy. This research intended to grasp the management status and problems of disposed FRP fishing boats in Korea, and to assess the level of competitive advantage of FRP fishing boats’ recycling technologies of FRP fishing boats based on VRIO (Value, Rarity, Imitability, Organization) analysis through domestic and foreign management policies and related recycling examples. According to the survey of 161 respondents, including the industry, stakeholders and experts related to the collection, treatment and recycling of fisheries wastes, it was revealed that FRP fishing boats’ recycling technologies of FRP fishing boats are at the level of ‘unused competitive advantage’ that satisfied the level of value, rarity and imitability, but not the level of organization.

This study utilizes the IPA (Importance-Performance Analysis) method to assess the importance, possibility, and urgency of using blockchain technology for fisheries sectors and the related policies. Based on a field survey targeting experts and stakeholders in the fisheries and blockchain technology sectors, the following major results and corresponding implications are drawn. First of all, the respondents of our survey have an outlook that the introduction and utilization of blockchain will be required in four major parts. These parts include i) the seafood’ information system managed by the government or public institutions, ii) traceability and certification process for domestic and foreign seafoods, iii) meeting the need of seafood safety from consumers, and iv) taking prompt actions to seafood safety related accidents. Next, the seafood information system managed by the government or public institutions has been limited in maintaining information consistency and continuity once the fisheries ministries and departments are integrated, closed or partially transferred. Thus, it is assessed that the technology will be able to improve consistency and continuity of the seafood information in case of applying blockchain to the seafood information management system. This result that blockchain is necessary for the seafood information system have a significant implication in Korea’s seafood management which has been independently controlled until now. Lastly, the application of blockchain to seafood traceability and certification systems has the most well-known cases through international and domestic pilot projects, and the results of our survey reflect this reality. Our results contribute to showing an additonal characteristics of blockchain in the fisheries sector, resulting in the possiblity that blockchain can be used for taking swift steps in the event of seafood safety accidents and meeting the need of seafood consumers for safety.