The adoption, diffusion, and evolution of organizational form: insights from the agrifood sector

Abstract

The adoption and diffusion of contract farming and vertical integration in modern agriculture has varied widely across regions, commodities, or farm types. This paper lays out a framework for understanding the evolution of organizational practices in U.S. agriculture by drawing on theories of the diffusion of technology and organizational complementarities. Using recent trends as stylized facts, with case studies from various agricultural industries, we argue that research identifying complementarities within specific sectors of the agrifood system will greatly improve our understanding of the organizational structure of agricultural production, and we identify several specific lines of inquiry. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Complementarity in the adoption of traceability of beef cattle in Brazil

“…This result corroborates James Junior et al (2011) who claim that organizational practices in the agrifood sector might be characterized by complementarities with few decomposable parts of a system. As a constituent element of a system, the adoption of one of these practices, which is an element itself, is facilitated when the firm had already adopted other.…”

“…For instance, traceability certification (SISBOV) in Brazil became compulsory for beef exports to European Union, although it is voluntary for internal market. In the institutional environment, firms can adopt different behaviors (James Junior et al, 2011). Here, the coexistence of feedlot and the set of management tools fosters the adoption of traceability in order to take the advantages of the European Union's market.…”

“…James Junior et al (2011) underline the research on complementarities is young and has not been applied systematically to the agrifood sector. The authors also state the potential for innovative research is great since the list of significant and specific variables to particular sector may be long.…”

“…This means that the probability of the new management technology (D) being adopted by the firm increases when the three management practices (A, B, and C) are present. This does not mean that the new management technology (D) cannot be adopted without the presence of the other three practices (A, B, and C) (James Junior et al, 2011). In general, the complementary elements of a system tend to move together systematically and consistently in response to contextual changes.…”

“…The concept of complementarity is an interesting approach to explain the slow and irregular process of technological diffusion (Bocquet et al, 2007;James Junior et al, 2011). However, this approach has been seldom explored in empirical studies on adoption of agricultural technology.…”