Examining Supply Chain for Seafood Industries Using Structural Path Analysis

Abstract

The present study investigates the supply chain for seafood industries in Korea. Unlike previous studies, which analyze the supply chain from input users’ perspective only, the present study examines the supply chain from both input users’ (backward linkage) and input suppliers’ (forward linkage) perspectives. In doing so, this study utilizes structural path analyses (SPAs) to scrutinize the specific paths along which the effects of a shock to a seafood industry are transmitted in both backward and forward directions. This study executes these two types of SPAs (backward linkage and forward linkage SPAs) for three seafood industries in Korea that include wild fisheries, aquaculture, and seafood processing, thus depicting a more detailed and complete picture of the mechanisms through which the influences of the seafood industries spill over to the rest of the economy. One important finding is that our SPAs are able to identify a number of seemingly unlikely non-seafood industries that play a critical role in transmitting the effects of a shock to a seafood industry.