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The purpose of this study is to disentangle the drivers of adoption of procurement strategies in situations where small agri-food firms deal with constrained organizational choices. More specifically, the authors investigate the role of transaction costs, capabilities and networks in the definition of feasible “make-or-buy” choices in emerging wine regions.

This article analyzes a unique dataset of small wineries from five US states: Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Vermont. The reported results derive from both a hurdle model (i.e. a probit model and a truncated regression model) and a tobit model.

The results suggest the importance of trust as a replacement for formal governance structures whenever small firms deal with highly constrained sets of organizational choices. On the other hand, the level of dependence on a limited mix of winegrape varieties and the perception that these varieties are fundamental in building legitimacy help to explain higher rates of vertical integration.

This study is important because it sheds light on organizational constraints that affect millions of farmers across the globe. The study of “make-or-buy” decisions in agri-food supply chains has mostly relied on the implicit assumption that all organizational choices are available to every firm. Nevertheless, limited capabilities and the participation in low-density networks may constrain the ability of a firm to adopt a governance mechanism. Stated organizational preferences and actual organizational choices may thus differ.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the existence of asset specificity and the architecture of the hybrid governance structures adopted by horticultural smallholders from the Brazilian region of Serra Fluminense.

This paper uses a negative binomial regression model to analyze 567 transactions carried out by horticultural smallholders from the Brazilian region of Serra Fluminense. Starting from the insights of Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost economics, an indicator is constructed with the goal to capture the degree of intensity of coordination from the adoption of diverse bundles of coordination mechanisms in a governance structure.

The results show that higher levels of human and physical asset specificity affect the intensity of coordination of the transactions in the sample, leading to the adoption of hybrid forms with more complex bundles of coordination mechanisms.

This paper adds to a growing literature that studies the architecture of complex governance structures. However, its empirical conclusions are exploratory.

The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, quantitative empirical studies that analyze the diversity of hybrid forms in the same industry are relatively rare. This contribution also presents a theoretical discussion that might inform scholars dealing with similar research challenges.

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 aims to conduct an extensive review and advances a framework for the literature of high-growth firms (HGFs) and scale-ups.

This paper takes the form of a literature review.

The author makes three specific contributions. First, he presents a broad review of high growth in firms, shedding light on the different levels of analysis. Second, he advances a characterization of scale-up companies to enable a better basis for discussion. Finally, he identifies gaps in the existing literature and suggest paths for future research.

The interest in HGFs and those referred to as scale-ups has increased considerably in recent years. Despite this trend, existing studies still have conceptual divergences and a gap separating theoretical inputs from the actual experiences of entrepreneurs.