Coordination forms in cassava starch factories the purchase of cassava

Abstract

Brazil has great relevance in the production of cassava and the productive chain of this product faces important challenges in the institutional and organizational spheres of its business. This article deals with an important organizational definition in the industrial segment of cassava starch in the state of Paraná - the largest Brazilian producer, with 70% of the national total. In this state, there is an important heterogeneity in the installed industrial capacity and also in the way in which each cassava processor organizes its governance of the purchase of cassava from the farmers. In many business cases surveyed in this agroindustry of Paraná, the adoption of more than one mode of governance for the transaction of purchase of cassava took place among the farms. The results pointed out that, even when spot market purchases prevail (in the act), there is a relevant plurality of governance for the purchase of cassava in the state farms of Paraná - between buying in the spot market, establishing short and long term contracts or integrating vertically backwards. Most of the firms surveyed opted for a mix of governance. The present work shows this profile of the formation of a governance mix among the cassava farms of Paraná and also emphasizes the exploration of an important theoretical frontier of the institutional economy, when analyzing cases of adoptions plural forms of governance in the transactions of an important Brazilian agricultural product.