Formas plurais de governança no transporte de cana-de-açúcar no setor sucroenergético: estudos de caso em usinas brasileiras

Abstract

The study of plural forms is the subject of several works carried out by researchers of organizational economics, under the perspective of various theoretical currents, however, there is still no consolidated and comprehensive theoretical framework that explains the reason for its emergence. In this thesis, the theories related to Transaction Cost Economics (TEC) were used, focusing on the way in which companies organize their activities and how they control their internal and external transactions. ECT is one of the most complex theories of organizational economics, because it considers that economic agents interact in order to reduce not only the operation or production costs, but also those related to transaction costs. The plural forms in transactions have been studied in various economic activities and in different areas of the sugar-energy sector, nevertheless, there is no research in the area of sugarcane transport. In the sugar-energy sector, several ways are used to govern raw material transport transactions from the field to industry, from those based on vertical integration to those related to market negotiations, passing through short, medium and long term contracts, which are called hybrid forms. The main aim of this study was to identify and analyze the determinants that guide agents to choose the plural forms in sugarcane transport coordination in the researched mills, as well as to verify the diversity and temporal stability in the transaction governance structures. For this, case studies were performed in a quantity and qualitative approach in ten mills, in different Brazilian states, with different governance types in the raw material transport, using semi-structured questionnaires with open and closed questions. The results indicated that in most of the selected mills there was a plurality in the coordination of sugar cane transport, with the use of different governance forms (market, hybrid forms and vertical integration). There was stability and diversity in the mills that practiced plural forms over the 11 years sampled and there was no trend for the use of only one form in the sugarcane transport. This study demonstrated that the determining factors for the use of governance plural forms were the attributes frequency, degree of uncertainty and asset specificity. All of these attributes were positive and statistically relevant in the statistical models (Poisson Regression and Ordinary Least Squares) used in this study, regarding the use of plural forms of governance structures. From the qualitative and quantitative analyses, it can be concluded that the adoption of plural forms has generated greater operational security and more competitive advantages in relation to transport costs. In this way, the plural forms of the sugarcane transport governance attended to the operational, logistical, financial and security objectives of the evaluated mills better than if single structures were used, reducing transaction costs.