Governance structures and coordination mechanisms in the Brazilian pork chain – Diversity of arrangements to support the supply of piglets

Abstract

This paper depicts the main coordination mechanisms (CMs) included in governance structures used to support the supply of piglets in the Brazilian Pork Chain (BPC). Furthermore, it analyses how and why actors use plural forms of coordination to support similar transactions. Based on the literature and an exploratory study carried out in the BPC, we propose a framework to analyse how price, volume, quality and resource allocation are coordinated in a transaction. This paper builds on transaction cost economics in two ways. First, it shows that to arrange a transaction, a buyer may set CMs in distinct positions within the market-hierarchy continuum. Second, it shows that actors use plural CMs with different counterparties in similar transactions. We found four explanations for plural governance: market fluctuations, bargaining power of suppliers, stricter coordination and quality, and the exchange context.