Plural Forms of Organization: Where Do We Stand?

• Published in: Managerial and decision economics Vol. 34; no. 3-5; pp. 124 - 139
• Main Author: Menard, Claude
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2013; John Wiley and Sons; Wiley Periodicals Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Agrofood industry; Ambiguity; Contracts; Corporate governance; Dealing; Decision analysis; Decision making; Decision making models; Determinants; Economic models; Economics; Economics and Finance; Empirical evidence; Empirical research; Financial investments; Financial management; Fitness; Franchise agreements; GOVERNANCE OF FRANCHISING NETWORKS: PART I; Humanities and Social Sciences; Identification; Joint ventures; Management science; Opportunistic behavior; Organization; Organizational behavior; Organizational change; Organizations; Pluralism; Stands; Strategic behaviour; Studies; Supports; Transaction costs; Transactional analysis; Food Industry; Transactions; Organization; Food
• ISSN: 0143-6570; 1099-1468
• DOI: 10.1002/mde.2578

This paper addresses a puzzling problem: why do parties often choose to combine alternative modes of organizations simultaneously while dealing with identical or almost identical transactions? I propose a model to capture these so-called 'plural forms' and to explain the choice of such non-standard arrangements. Three determinants are identified as playing the major role: ambiguity surrounding the fitness of a mode of organization to the transaction at stake; complexity of a transaction or a set of transactions; and strategic behavior. Propositions are derived that are confronted to empirical data coming out of the agro-food industry.