New business creation is a critical but difficult issue in agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries. This paper shows some successful cases about new business creation in fishermen’s communities, and examines the networking process and the structure of network both inside and outside of the communities by using the framework of social capital. Social Capital explains the importance of social connections and social relations in achieving goals. Social capital, or resources accessed through such connections and relations, is becoming more important element for the community. Burt (1992) proposed the idea called “structural holes” in social capital framework. The person who locates the connecting of the structural holes (a node or a bridge) would get the advantage or benefit compare with other members, because he/she will be more freedom and flexibly to reach outside resources through their weak ties. The subject of case studies is about three following fishermen’s communities. First case is a Sanriku fishery production Union located Okirai, Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture. Second case is a young fishermen’s group in Yui, Shizuoka Prefecture. The third case is Ama-cho in Oki Island, Shimane Prefecture. As a result, there are some common features of three cases. Firstly, a new network has been built on both inside and outside of the community though new business creation. The particular feature of the network is diversity and heterogeneity. By using the network, they can introduce management resources such as new ideas, sales channels and human resources efficiently and effectively. On the other hand, there are different type of key persons existing on the three cases. The first case, a fish-sales man who work for the fishermen’s community has become a node (a bridge) of the network (the external human resources type). Second case, the leader of the young fishermen’s group has become a node (a bridge) of the network (the internal human resources type). The third case, a staff of the administrative organization becomes a node (a bridge) of the network (the government-led type).
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