This paper consists in a case study in Primar Orgânica, focusing on its process of transformation of conventional shrimp farming to organic. Primar became the only company of production of organic shrimp in the state and the first in the world in the creation of organic oysters. For doing that, we employed a theoretical framework based on Resource-Based View (RBV) (BARNEY, 1991; KATILA, SHANE, 2005), Institutional Theory (IT) and Social Networks. It broadens the concept of environment used in RBV when adds the concept of institutional environment. Social Network Theory centers in the inter-relationship between the actors and the structure of the network as inhibiting or constraining the capacity to innovate (LIU, MADHAVAN, SUDHARSHAN, 2005). The central assumption is that innovation is a process embedded in the social context (LUNDVALL, 1993). The analysis of data, collected through in-depth interviews and documents, denotes how the scarcity of resources and the embedment of the entrepreneur in different contexts made possible the technological and management innovation, allowing the organization to gain competitive advantage based on a strategy centered in differentiated resources.
innovation; networks; RBV