Governance and Social Network: Analysis in Cooperatives of Small Citrus Producers in the São Paulo State, Brazil

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the network governance structure adopted by small producers’ citrus cooperatives has allowed the reduction of risks in transactions, ex-ante (adverse selection) and ex-post (moral hazard), and the problems of opportunism downstream and upstream of the production chain. The planned methodological procedure included the structuring and research of two case studies in cooperatives of small orange producers in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, comprising a sample of 35 cooperative members surveyed between the two cooperatives analyzed. The analyzes were supported by the Transaction Cost Economics and Social Network approaches. Results indicate the importance of the cooperatives and their network format, as economic agents, in maintaining small producers in the citrus industry activity, allowing the reduction of risks in transactions and the problems of opportunism, downstream and upstream of the chain. It was verified the academic contribution and theoretical reinforcement brought by this study - through the empirical surveys and results produced - to the theory of hybrid governance formats, which lacks empirical support and greater analytical strengthening on the part of the academy, according to its own authors. It is suggested, for future analysis, the use of the network governance approach aimed at strengthening the class of small producers of other agribusiness cultures, also using the theoretical basis belonging to NIE, TCE and Networks. The continuity of analyzes based on relational governance, with institutional and transactional economics as a basis, represents not only academic documentation and support for small rural producers of different cultures, but also the guarantee of theoretical robustness to a structure that is still incipient in historical terms, which finds in Brazilian agribusiness a fertile ground for its development and materialization.