Analysis of Conditions and Implementation Pathways for Collaborative Governance in Aquaculture Based on Grounded Theory

ABSTRACT

During China's transition from scale‐oriented expansion to green development in aquaculture, tensions among environmental pressure, product safety and industrial returns have become increasingly pronounced. Traditional sector‐based management approaches are less able to respond to the governance needs arising from cross‐regional interactions, extended industrial chains and the involvement of multiple stakeholders. Drawing on grounded theory, this study uses field interviews and policy documents as the primary coding materials, supplemented by enterprise cases and related evidence, to analyse the enabling conditions and implementation pathways of collaborative governance among multiple actors in aquaculture. The findings indicate that collaborative governance in aquaculture aims to achieve a dynamic balance among ecological security, product safety and economic benefits and promotes multi‐actor coordination through institutional safeguards, technological collaboration, interest coordination and information sharing. Its formation conditions include resolving governance tensions caused by horizontal fragmentation and vertical implementation gaps, providing integrated services that combine technological and institutional arrangements, enabling industrial organisations to absorb the costs of green governance through cooperation, and establishing a standards system covering the whole industrial chain. Three governance pathways are identified: cross‐domain coordination, industrial organisation‐driven mobilisation and technology‐standard embedding. The study suggests that the effectiveness of collaborative governance in aquaculture depends on embedding institutional alignment, technological implementation, benefit responsiveness and information connectivity into specific governance contexts, thereby transforming dispersed actors into a sustained collaborative governance network.