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The purpose of this paper is to provide a multidimensional framework for the identification, description and comparative analysis of alternative farm structures and their properties for economic development.

Integrating previous typologies and considering a large set of examples, the authors identify six attributes that are necessary to characterize and compare farm structures: size; strategy; organizational form; legal form; who the owners are; and degree of separation of ownership and control. They also discuss potential complementarities between those organizational attributes and specific features of the institutions of developing and emerging countries, such as contract enforcement and property rights protection regime, and developed capital markets and corporate law.

Conceptually and empirically, effective farm structures can deviate from the templates traditionally considered – “small family-owned farm” or “large factory-like corporate farm,” combining structural attributes in diverse ways. The dimensionalization of farm structures also helps in revealing complementary institutional traits at the regional or larger system level that may foster development processes.

The paper is limited to theory building and case-based evidence. Nevertheless, it provides dimensions that can be measured on a larger scale and by quantitative studies.

This paper sheds light on organizational diversity in agriculture and on a wider set of feasible development paths.

This paper builds on a long-lasting research program on the micro-foundations of innovative decision making, founded on a development of a neglected epistemic aspect of Simon's work, and on contributions in epistemology, in which heuristics are not procedures that are uncertaintyavoiding, economizing on cognitive and search effort, and problem-space reducing, but procedures that are uncertainty-modeling, investing in research effort, and problem-expanding. The paper offers a summary of the main effective heuristics of that kind so far identified, as applied to real processes of innovative decision making under epistemic uncertainty, such as judging and investing in novel entrepreneurial projects. It argues and shows that, in contrast to the common view, a wide range of those procedures, usually thought to belong to different and rival models, can be fruitfully combined.

The variety and change of organization forms in the agri-business industry are analyzed, extending available comparative economic organization approach (most notably transaction cost economics) with negotiation analysis and organization design theory. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Three extensions are proposed and argued to be particularly useful for analyzing economic organization in conditions such as those prevailing in agri-food industries. First, more consideration is given to horizontal structures and associational contracts as a particularly important response to transactional problems in this field. Second, it is acknowledged that different conditions of substitutability in different stages of the chain make it likely that transaction costs are different for different parties, bringing them to have different preferences over governance solutions, whereby a negotiation problem on efficient arrangements has to be solved. Third, the very process of integrating different parties’ interests contributes in explaining the emergence of “hybrids” and in designing more efficient and more fair forms within the (very) large class of hybrids, and even within any sub-type of hybrid, such as sub-contracting, licensing, franchising, consortia, etc.

New Pareto-improving and Nash-improving solutions are specified, and shown to provide indications for organizational change that differ from those predicted and prescribed by standard organizational economics. Those solutions are also shown to be realistic (possible in reality) through case studies on actual non-main-stream experiences approximating those arrangements. Both the analytic method proposed, and the solutions found, provide useful and currently missing tools to private and public policy makers for improving the organization of the sector.

The study specify pre-conditions for reaching superior agreements, that suggest hypotheses for empirical further research on the factors that may favor or hinder those changes.

A “trend” for change is recommended for the agri-food sector, toward more associational and horizontal arrangements, rather than either toward market or hierarchical governance or any hybrid intermediate point between them. It has been shown that this prescription should hold not only across stages of the value chain, but also among firms within the same stage (in the case, the farming stage).

The proposed changes should improve the fairness of economic organization in the sector. Re-equilibrating negotiation power is an alternative way of reducing transaction costs across stages and a pre-condition for reaching more efficient and fair agreements across stages.

Both the analytic method proposed, and the solutions found, extend economic organization theory, and provide useful and currently missing tools to private and public policy makers for designing and assessing the organization of the sector.

This chapter reconstructs the roots of configurational analysis in organization theory and organizational economics, focusing on the elements of configurational thinking that are particularly relevant to organizational design; and outlining some future prospects for a configurational theory of organization design. We detect the presence of configurational ideas in many organization theories and organizational economics approaches. We argue that this, seldom acknowledged, continuity extends and enriches the implications of configurational analysis for organization design. In addition, we define and identify ‘structural heterogeneity’ as an organizational property that can be distinctively studied by configurational analysis, distinguishing between internal heterogeneity – diversity of organizational attributes within one configuration – and external heterogeneity – diversity of organizational configurations under the same environmental conditions. Some of the insights that can be gained through a configurational analysis of structural heterogeneity are illustrated through a fs/QCA study of a multi-industry sample of firms.

In recent years, organisations around the world have been seriously affected by a range of economic, political and social upheavals that have gathered momentum in most parts of the globe. The viability of the conventional (pyramidal) organisational structures is being challenged in conjunction with major shifts in the roles of mid and top managers. In many countries, the pace of the above socio‐economic events and uncertainties is happening at an unprecedented pace. Some markets are showing signs of potential gigantic expansions while others (historically prosperous) are on the verge of complete collapse (Dent, 1991). In responding to the socio‐economic challenges of the nineties, organisations (across the board) have resorted to dismantling the conventional pyramidal structure and adopting so‐called “leaner” structures (see Zeffane, 1992). The most common struggle has been to maintain market share in an economic environment increasingly characterised by excess labour supply (Bamber, 1990; Green & Macdonald, 1991). As organisations shifted their strategies from “mass production” to “post‐fordism” (see, for example Kern and Schumann, 1987), there has been a significant tendency to emphasise flexibility of both capital and labour in order to cater for the niche markets which are claimed to be rapidly emerging, world‐wide. This has resulted in massive organisational restructuring world‐wide.

Attempts to consider how a founder has reduced equivocality in relation to support networks and reducing risks, especially in an international environment. Presents the case studies of five Danish and Australian born global companies. Considers different global models and their limitations. Presents the findings of recent surveys in this area. Concludes that internationalization has not been the primary objective in the founding process and gives direction for further research.

In this paper we appraise the ways in which use of closed-system proprietary product architectures versus open-system modular product architectures is likely to influence the dynamics and trajectory of new product market formation. We compare the evolutions of new markets in China for gas-powered two-wheeled vehicles (G2WVs) based (initially) on closed-system proprietary architectures and for electric-powered two-wheeled vehicles (E2WVs) based on open-system modular architectures. We draw on this comparison to suggest ways in which the use of the two different kinds of architectures as the basis for new kinds of products may result in very different patterns and speeds of new market formation. We then suggest some key implications of the different dynamics of market formation associated with open-system modular architectures for both the competence-based strategic management (CBSM) of firms and for technology and economic development policies of governments.

Specifically, we suggest how the use of open-system modular product architectures as the basis for new products is likely to result in dynamics of new market formation that call for new approaches to the strategic management of innovation and product creation. We also suggest technology and economic development policies favoring use of open-system modular architectures may stimulate new market formation and related economic development by providing platforms for accelerating technology development and dissemination, facilitating the formation of an industrial base of assemblers and component suppliers, assisting new firms in building customer relationships, enabling more geographically diffused economic development within countries, and facilitating development of export markets. We also suggest directions for further research into the potential for open-system modular product architectures to enable bottom-of-the-pyramid innovation processes, frugal engineering in developing economies, and development of low-cost product variations more generally.