Coping with crisis

The Peruvian state-owned fishing enterprise Pesca Perú, 1973–1998

Bibliographic Data

ID6043705
AuthorsGregory Ferguson-Cradler (0000-0003-4422-2011, International Studies, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume67
Issue4
Pages997-1020
Publication date2025-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBusiness History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-6791 • E-ISSN: 1743-7938
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00076791.2023.2292751
OpenAlexW4390668139
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited45

This article examines why and how states use the legal and organisational construction of the state-owned enterprise (SOE) to deal with environmental and social crises. In 1973, in response to a drastic collapse in the world’s largest fishery, the Peruvian state nationalised its anchoveta fishing fleet and factories while hastily creating Pesca Perú, an SOE given a monopoly on industrial catch and exploitation of the resource. Pesca Perú struggled with a dual mandate and governments with widely varying ideas of how the Peruvian economy should be organised. In the early 1980s the enterprise lost its production monopoly due as much to environmental factors as to political decisions. It was eventually privatised in the 1990s. While generally regarded as a failed business, Pesca Perú was a useful tool for a state with limited resources to pursue governance and developmental objectives

Business · Coping (psychology) · Corporate governance · Economics · Economy · Fishery · Fishing · Mandate · Market economy · Monopoly · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · Economic Zones and Regional Development · Finance · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact

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Open DOIOpen Access