Organizational tolerance in agro-industrial systems: an empirical application for the meat sector

Based on the Measurement Cost Theory, this study focuses on the coexistence of institutional arrangements in coordinating complex agribusiness systems. Under the rationale of “Organizational Tolerance”, the existence of plural forms is investigated in the acquisition of cattle, poultry, and swine by the meatpacking industry in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. In general terms, the degree of organizational tolerance and its determinants are assessed in this study. To this end, 98 farmers were interviewed and the data analyzed by applying an Ordered Logit model. The main hypothesis is that Organizational Tolerance is related to the difficulty of measuring attributes of the transacted products. The findings show that the difficulty of measuring the animal condition is statistically significant (5%) for the existence of a higher Organizational Tolerance. Other variables such as tradition (5%), cooperation (10%), and adoption of contracts (1%) also explain the degree of Organizational Tolerance in agro-productive systems. Understanding the determinants of organizational choice is essential to the identification of efficient solutions for the coordination of productive systems in agribusiness, and for the establishment of public and private strategies for the sector.