Interferências do ambiente institucional nas estruturas de governança de cadeias do agronegócio

Abstract

Institutions are an important theme in the organizational environment and in the competitiveness of companies. The main objective of this research is to study the influence of the institutional environment on the choice of the firm's governance structures, in particular the judicial system's interference. According to the New Institutional Economics, some forms of governance and contractual relations presents advantages over others, depending on factors such as transaction costs, value creation, decision-making and uncertainty. The organizations are inserted in the Institutional Environment, formed by the institutions, their norms and regulations. Interaction between institutions and organizations designs the institutional evolution of an economy (North, 1994). Besides shaping economic development, changes in the institutional environment, property rights, contract law, norms and customs induce changes in the comparative governance costs of organizations (Williamson, 1993). In Brazil, outsourcing was not viewed favorably by the Labor Court because, in its opinion, the practice could harm the rights acquired by workers. Sumula 331 of the High Court of Labor prohibited the outsourcing of company's main activities before Law 13.429 of 2017, entailing problems for the companies that opted to disintegrate activities of its scope. This thesis had in the lawsuits filed by the Public Labor Ministry against companies in the agribusiness sector the motivation to study the influence of the institutional environment in the choice of governance structures. In order to better understand this influence, research takes place in two different institutional environments: Brazil and the United States, the choice being justified because they have two different judicial systems regarding legal origin and the form that they are organized for solving disputes. The empirical analysis is based on the qualitative approach, once Brazilian legislation's change about it recent and quantitative data are not available. Case studies have been developed in both countries with farmers to analyze their governance structures, value created in outsourced activities, and uncertainty in the institutional environment. Uncertainty is the variable that links the strategy adopted and the producers' perception of the judicial system in their countries. The results of the case studies reinforce that the judicial system influences the governance structures of the agribusiness networks and that uncertainty plays an important role in this choice. As well as the value created in the outsourcing transaction is a relevant variable during decision making. Therefore, in addition to the academic contribution, the thesis contributes to public policies creation, which would generate first-order economizing. And also managerial contribution to address and to alert managers to the variables that generate second-order economics. In general, the present study develops an approach for the examination of the governance structures, making an interface between Law and Economi...