Abstract:
The following literature review is intended to provide a framework for a qualitative analysis of the factors influencing the evolution of the iwi organisations that own and manage commercial fisheries assets. The analysis will compare the empirical results with the factors that institutional economics suggests influence institutional design. The proposed research is intended to fill two gaps: firstly, it will enlarge the set of analytical tools that have been applied to understanding the development of the new iwi organisations; secondly, it will appraise a new, highly distinctive institutional form with a selection of
theories from contemporary institutional economics. The paper contains an introduction to the new iwi organisations, a note on method and then surveys selected material from the institutional economics literature that seems most promising for exploring the evolution of iwi organisations. Although the paper is primarily a literature review, the notes on the new iwi organisations and research method are included to assist the explanation of how appropriate literature was selected. This stems from the view that successful research matches subject matter, method and theory. The paper closes by presenting a set of questions generated from the survey literature. which will be used to guide the fieldwork.
