The Norwegian aquaculture industry faces pressure from stakeholders, the public, and government to ensure sustainable production. Sustainability is closely linked with solving key environmental challenges. Standards such as those created by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) are universal and generally provide what is known as additionality to state regulation, such as more comprehensive requirements, with the goal of enhancing sustainability. Acquiring certification can be expensive, but it has been shown that the industry spends large amounts of time and resources to voluntarily become ASC certified. In this article, we study the motivations for ASC certification. In line with previous work, we find several motivations for obtaining certification, even though it is no guarantee for financial gains like premium prices or better market access. Still, it may be just as valuable for industry actors to use certification to create room to maneuver so as to be prepared for future market claims, changes in regulations, and increased pressure for more sustainable production. Furthermore, certification is perceived as having the potential to improve producers' and retailers' reputation and standing both locally and globally. Certification and the use of labels can be tools in reputational management. By reducing complexity and uncertainty in communication, certification labelling can help consumers improve their product choices in terms of sustainability. Industry actors in this study express approval of certification and desire the potential reputational gain that comes from it; however, our findings suggest that this potential has not been fully realized. The industry experiences challenges in communicating with the local and global public and lacks influence on what is communicated to consumers through retailers. Therefore, it appears that those actually reaping the potential reputational gains of ASC certification are the non-governmental organizations behind the creation of the ASC and the retailers that demand ASC-certified salmon.

挪威水产养殖业面临利益相关者，公众和政府的压力，以确保可持续的生产。可持续发展与解决关键环境挑战紧密相关。水产养殖管理委员会（ASC）制定的标准具有普遍性，通常为国家法规提供所谓的附加性，例如更全面的要求，目的是增强可持续性。获得认证的费用可能很高，但事实表明，该行业花费大量时间和资源来自愿获得ASC认证。在本文中，我们研究了ASC认证的动机。与以前的工作一致，我们发现了获得认证的几种动机，即使不能保证溢价或更好的市场准入等财务收益。尽管如此，对于行业参与者来说，使用认证来创造回旋余地，为将来的市场主张，法规的变化以及对更具可持续性的生产施加更大压力的准备，可能同样有价值。此外，认证被认为具有提高生产商和零售商声誉的潜力，并且在本地和全球范围内都具有很高的声誉。认证和标签的使用可以成为声誉管理的工具。通过降低沟通的复杂性和不确定性，认证标签可以帮助消费者在可持续性方面改善他们的产品选择。这项研究中的行业参与者表达了对认证的认可，并希望从认证中获得潜在的声誉收益。然而，我们的发现表明，这种潜力尚未得到充分发挥。该行业在与本地和全球公众沟通方面面临挑战，并且对通过零售商传达给消费者的信息缺乏影响。因此，看来实际上获得ASC认证潜在声誉声誉的人是ASC创立背后的非政府组织和要求获得ASC认证鲑鱼的零售商。