Governance and social network: analysis of cooperatives of small citrus farmers in the regions of Bebedouro-SP and Itápolis-SP

Abstract

The Brazilian citrus sector continues to reveal organizational and institutional peculiarities, which, if well understood and studied, may represent an alternative to the well-known process of reduction of small citrus producers in the orange belt. In the 21st century, the growing participation of small citrus producers in associations and cooperatives, in order to deal with market uncertainties, calls for the study of these forms of governance that represent a less vertical and more cooperative arrangement between agents. Thus, the research problem is: The governance structure worked by small producers' citrus cooperatives, if their format is networked, allows risk reduction in transactions, ex-ante (adverse selection) and ex-post (moral hazard), and the problems of opportunism downstream and upstream of the productive chain? The general objective of the research is to analyze if the governance structure adopted by small producers' citrus cooperatives and their possible network format have allowed the reduction of risks in the transactions and the problems of opportunism. The planned methodological procedure involves the structuring and research of two case studies in cooperatives of small orange producers in the interior of the state of São Paulo, both of which are inserted in the juice production activity. Such analyzes will be supported by the approaches of the Transaction Cost Economics (complementary, Agency theory) and Social Networking. As a result, it is expected the definition of the importance of cooperatives and their network format, as economic agents, in the maintenance of the small producers in the activity of citriculture, as well as the academic contribution to the theory of the hybrid formats of governance.