2. Discuss the five phases of the user adoption bell curve.

What stage did Salma Cured likely reach and why? This chapter outlined how innovation to a large extent is about testing new combinations. In this case study, the innovators planned to use high-quality, farmed salmon as an input into salmon salami (Salma Cured), but the product instead became a special, high-quality fillet (Salma Fresh).

The case study includes two industrial actors forming a new venture called “Salmon Brands”: Bremnes Seashore, a family-owned fish farm, and Tine SA, Norway’s largest dairy producer.

Bremnes Seashore, together with researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, developed and patented novel technologies for slaughtering salmon.

These were new slaughtering and processing technologies for farmed salmon, which reduced the stress levels of the fish and enabled pre-rigor1 processing of the fish to an extent that no competitors could achieve at the time. In addition to the advantage of time – getting fresher fish out to customers – the raw material proved to have some new and very interesting characteristics regarding colour, texture and taste. This new way of slaughtering the salmon gave a significant rise in the quality of the raw material.

Nevertheless, to its disappointment, Bremnes Seashore failed to get a better price from its customers, because the major distributors in the fish industry were not interested in paying a higher price for this premium raw material.