Corporate Governance and Performance in agricultural co-operatives in Brazil

Autores

  • Jean Carlos da Silva Américo Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul
  • Silvia Morales de queiroz Caleman
  • Davi Rogério de Moura Costa
  • Patrícia Campeão

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21434/IberoamericanJCG.v6i2.75

Palavras-chave:

Aagricultural co-operatives, Governance, Agency conflicts, Performance

Resumo

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between the adoption of corporate governance practices and the performance of agricultural co-operatives in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The document analysis was based on bylaws and meeting minutes from 2012 to 2014, from a sample of 21 co-operatives, totaling 84 documents. In order to assess the level of corporate governance we compared the co-operatives’ documents to the 40 recommendations proposed by the Brazilian Co-operatives Organization (OCB, 2016). These are distributed in 5 major areas: i) members and the general assembly; ii) management board; iii) supervisory board; iv) advisory bodies and audit; and v) ombudsman and co-operatives’ relationship with their members. The theoretical presupposition is that the adoption of corporate governance aligns the interests of the co-operatives and their members, which minimizes agency conflicts.  To that end, we assumed the following theoretical precepts of the agency theory: i) monitoring, and ii) incentives. The results showed that the majority of governance practices recommended are related to the “management board” area, while those most adopted by the co-operatives are related to the dimension “members and general assembly”—which are strongly related to monitoring efforts. Considering the totality of recommendations proposed by OCB, only two have been 100% adopted by the co-operatives. The results show a low level of corporate governance in agriculture co-ops in Mato Grosso do Sul. We conclude that there is still a long way to go until governance practices become a mechanism to minimize agency conflicts.

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Publicado

2021-12-31

Como Citar

da Silva Américo, J. C., Silvia Morales de queiroz Caleman, Davi Rogério de Moura Costa, & Patrícia Campeão. (2021). Corporate Governance and Performance in agricultural co-operatives in Brazil. RGC - Revista De Governança Corporativa, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.21434/IberoamericanJCG.v6i2.75

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