No description available.

The purpose of this thesis was to analyze how the length of the supply chain and theinterorganizational relation between the suppliers within a construction project affects theoutcome of social sustainability with a focus on workplace safety and accidents. A qualitativestudy was conducted through semi-structured interviews with nine respondents from differentparts of the supply chain. An analytical model was created based on the theoretical framework ofinterorganizational relation factors (communication, collaboration, coordination and cooperation,organizational culture, and knowledge sharing) and sustainable supply chain management tounderstand how the length and the relationships affect safety on construction projects. The thesisidentified that the multiple tiers of subcontractors, increases the complexity of implementing aneffective interorganizational relation and sustainable supply chain management. Therefore, thelength of the supply chain and the interorganizational relations influence the degree of safety.Other findings included how the changing workforce, with increased foreign workers, is a newchallenge for the industry, and the long supply chain makes the safety work more difficult. Thefindings could be of interest to actors in the construction industry since it adds aninterorganizational perspective to the long supply chain's influence on workplace safety

This qualitative research addressed systems psychodynamic consultation to boundary management. The systemic, dynamic and chaotic aspects of organisational life formed the backdrop against which the research was conducted. The general objective of the research was to describe a relevant consulting model for organisational consulting psychologists related to boundary management. Literature was reviewed in order to describe organisational consulting and organisational boundaries from the systems psychodynamic perspective. Key principles for boundary management consulting were also described. The objectives of the empirical study were to apply psychodynamic consulting to boundary management and to describe the process. A further objective was to produce research hypotheses about boundary management from both an organisational and a consulting perspective. A case study design was followed. Descriptive data was gathered by means of a participative observer. The data was analysed by means of systems psychodynamic discourse analysis. Ten working hypothesis were produced. These hypotheses culminated into two research hypotheses, describing the primary task of boundary management and boundary management consulting. The first research hypothesis was that the primary task of boundary management is to hold the polarities of integration and differentiation, not allowing the system to become fragmented or overly integrated. The second research hypothesis was that the primary task of the consultant in boundary management consulting is to help the organisation’s managing its own boundaries. This is carried out through taking up the role of organisational consultant, performing the consulting tasks and by applying a consulting process. The researcher concluded that boundary management is an activity of the whole organisation. Boundary management consulting facilitates or supports this organisational activity.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: For more than a decade there has been an economic need to mitigate the negative effects of the air transport industry's innate sensitivity to cyclical developments as well as the effects of its inherent lack of substantial profits. The past 20 years were additionally marked by a change in policy that prompted various countries to liberalise and privatise their civil passenger air transportation industry. At the same time, airlines' business ambitions became more global, tapping into markets beyond countries' or continents' main gateways. All three aspects started to change the pattern of airline competition and required new business models. Key features of airlines' novel business models are geographic expansion and thus market development. Global expansion strategies and market development activities in passenger air transportation are, however, not easily and fluidly executable. The airline industry is, to some extent, still nationally regulated, thus impeding passenger airlines from fully participating in the global market-scene and from freely entering promising geographies. Concomitantly, the competitive landscape in which scheduled passenger airlines operate changed drastically, with travel value chains occasionally undergoing revolutionary transformations on both the supply and the demand side. Finally, the air transport service reveals several peculiarities that impact its production, distribution and consummation. These characteristics have inspired the execution of novel forms of competitive strategies that are described and critically discussed in this dissertation. Within this context, a main root cause for passenger airline partnerships appears to be its continued regulation and the circumvention thereof through the horizontal joining of forces, thus emulating concentration tendencies that have long been a fixture in other globalising industries. Consequently, horizontal interairline partnerships were induced and identified as a key competitive device with which to weather the challenges of the new air transport rivalry structures, the increasingly deregulated environment, and the impediments of sustained market regulation. All major airlines are now involved in some type of horizontal collaboration. The spectrum of these linkages is wide and ranges from loose, unattached, operative agreements to long-term, far-reaching, strategic ones, the most salient forms and instruments of which are thoroughly scrutinised in this dissertation. This dissertation additionally presents the general core inducing economic drivers of carrier interrelationship, which are cost reduction, revenue generation and corporate power considerations. While these aspects offer a multitude of possible partnership forms and instruments, the bulk of airline linkages, however, is presently constituted of joint revenue generation and, consequently, jointly pursued marketing and market expansion goals. In view of these causes, the present dissertation engages in a profound discussion of the rationales behind interairline partnerships, their likely evolution and effects on management practice. Essentially, the key importance of airline partnerships in meeting basic economic imperatives on the one hand, while circumventing persistent regulation on the other, questions the sustainability of incumbent carriers' current business models. There are clear indications that a structured sequence of events in establishing interairline linkages is a key success factor for horizontal airline partnerships. However, the empirical examination of contemporary partnerships' governance structures and managerial practice strongly points to a lack of ample tools with which to establish airline partnerships, select the appropriate match between alliance goals and intensity, and govern alliances during their entire life-cycles. This drawback seems particularly unacceptable in view of the urgent requirement for more appropriate managerial practice in today's discontinuous air transport business environment, and speaks loudly of the need for a framework with which to enhance airline partnership output. Most ideally, a coherent, structured sequence of events should be followed in partnership formation, organisational set-up and management in order to bring an alliance to fruition. On this basis, the establishment of a collaboration governance organisation, adequately mirroring the specific partnership type and meeting the specific demands of all partners involved, is equally identified and described as a fundamental success driver in this dissertation. Further structural, organisational and functional issues thereafter need to be considered in order to transform the joint business venture of two horizontally allied carriers into a venture for mutual success. The most essential of these are introduced in this dissertation. Synergy plays a central role in this context. Synergy, as the overreaching intention and result of working together towards a common goal, must be anchored as a prime objective of all forms of partnership activities. Synergy through interfirm linkages can be derived from various collaborative areas and is greatly influenced by both internal and external factors. One gauge for synergy, in particular for the transformation of synergy potentials into synergy effects, is partnership intensity. The measurement of partnership intensity can be used to perpetually monitor the benefits of partnership activities. At the same time, inconsistent or uneven partnership intensity can indicate the existence of dissynergies or frailties in the alliance. The underlying theories of collaborative synergy generation, its main drivers and impediments, with particular reference to horizontal partnerships of scheduled passenger airlines, are explored in this dissertation. In recognition of the theoretical and practical background of airline partnerships and the acknowledged problems associated with their establishment and operation, the present dissertation proposes a novel model dynamically supporting the quest for synergy in airline interrelationships. Incorporating the goals of synergy generation and its continual measurement in interairline partnerships, the synergy audit is designed as a dynamic managerial tool. The synergy audit functions as a recurring device for unleashing all the positive partnership benefits of collaborative scope and width. It aids airline alliance management in transforming the desired benefits of partnership activities - synergy potentials - into real, tangible synergy effects during the entire partnership life cycle. The tool A.PIE (Airline Partnership Intensity Evaluator) supports the synergy audit and, which idiosyncratic to the airline industry, multidimensionally applies the deduced relationship of partnership intensity and synergy to the most salient partnership areas and functions. The present dissertation shapes understanding of the true drivers and complexities of today's airline partnerships. It proposes a circular, multidimensional and dynamic model, thus attempting to enhance the set-up, performance and output of horizontal airline collaboration. From this point of view it endeavours to fill the gap identified in contemporary airline partnership management and practice. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sien asb volteks vir opsomming

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Since their introduction to the United States from Japan in the 1980s, inter-organizational cooperation practices between buyers and suppliers have provided lower costs, shorter development and production cycles, and higher levels of quality and productivity. Many studies of interorganizational cooperation have relied on transaction cost economicsframeworks,which ignore cultural differences. Few studies have analyzed inter-organizational cooperation in Mexico, a less-developed country (LDC) with a cultural and industrial environment differentfromthe U.S. This study is concerned with the influence of interorganizational trust, individualism and collectivism (indcol), and the superordinate goal ofjust-in-time/total quality management (JIT/TQM) on inter-organizational cooperation.

Cette thèse explore comment les réseaux intra-organisationnels et la collaboration inter-organisationnelle déterminent, séparément et conjointement l'innovation d'entreprise. Les organisations s'appuient à la fois sur la collaboration externe et interne pour obtenir et intégrer des connaissances sur de nouveaux produits et procédés. Les réseaux de collaboration interne entre les scientifiques en recherche et développement facilitent le partage et le transfert de connaissances tandis que la collaboration externe, via des alliances et des "joint ventures", offre accès à de nouvelles connaissances. Ce modèle a été testé empiriquement en utilisant des données de l'industrie des dispositifs médicaux en Amérique du nord entre 1990 et 2005. Contrairement aux attentes, les réseaux intra-organisationnels plus cohésifs et plus regroupés réduisent le transfert de connaissances et la diversité, ce qui réduit aussi l'innovation d'entreprise. Alors que les réseaux intra-organisationnels très connectés augmentent les effets de la collaboration inter-organisationnelle sur l'innovation d'entreprise. Cette thèse contribue à la littérature des réseaux et de l'innovation en examinant les mécanismes qui interviennent dans les effets de la structure du réseau sur l'innovation d'entreprise. Elle explore également le caractère multi-niveaux des réseaux en combinant à la fois les relations intra-entreprise et inter-entreprises pour expliquer l'innovation d'entreprise / This dissertation explores how intraorganizational networks and interorganizational collaboration, individually and jointly, shape firm innovation. Organizations rely on both external and internal collaboration to obtain and integrate knowledge in new products and processes. Internal collaboration networks among R&D scientists facilitate knowledge sharing and transfer whereas external collaboration via alliances and joint ventures provide an organization with access to new knowledge. This model is empirically tested in the North-American medical devices industry between 1990 and 2005. Contrary to the expectations, more cohesive and clustered intrafirm networks actually reduce knowledge transfer and diversity, which then reduces firm innovation. But well-connected intrafirm networks augment the effects of interorganizational collaboration on firm innovation. This dissertation contributes to the networks and innovation literature by examining the mechanisms that mediate the effects of network structure on firm innovation. It also explores the multilevel nature of networks by combining both intrafirm and interfirm relationships to explain firm innovation

Esta pesquisa buscou identificar, sob a óptica da Economia dos Custos de Transação, como o Open-Book Accounting e a confiança influenciam a satisfação com o relacionamento entre fornecedores e comprador na cadeia de suprimentos do setor automotivo. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida por meio de estudo de casos múltiplos, caracterizado como explanatório, composto por uma montadora de veículos e três de seus fornecedores diretos (first tier). Para a coleta de dados, foram utilizadas, além de análise documental, entrevistas semiestruturadas, em que o discurso foi analisado por meio de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados encontrados evidenciam que o OBA é unilateral, forçado pela montadora, constituindo-se em um processo seletivo de informação, uma vez que os fornecedores tentam, na medida do possível, proteger o valor de suas informações. Encontrou-se, ainda, que o OBA é usado principalmente para reajuste de preços e em condições conflitivas baseadas mais em pressão para redução de preços que em estratégias conjuntas. Outro achado refere-se ao nível de detalhe das informações compartilhadas, que apresenta correlação positiva com a probabilidade de concessão de reajuste de preço reivindicado pelos fornecedores. Os resultados mostram, adicionalmente, que a confiança é parcial (calculative trust) e a cooperação não é espontânea, ambas motivadas pela busca de benefícios. Foi verificado, também, que o OBA pode ter tanto um efeito positivo quanto negativo sobre a satisfação econômica e social dos fornecedores, dependendo de como são utilizadas as informações pela montadora. Pela mesma razão, o OBA pode tanto gerar quanto destruir confiança no relacionamento. Embora os fornecedores tenham relatado elevada satisfação com o OBA, contraditoriamente verificou-se que nenhum deles compartilharia suas informações espontaneamente, levando à conclusão de que os mesmos percebem pouca vantagem na aplicação do OBA. Os resultados indicam que a satisfação da montadora com o OBA está relacionada com o nível de detalhe das informações: quanto mais detalhadas, maior a satisfação da montadora com o OBA e com os resultados econômico-financeiros advindos dos relacionamentos (satisfação econômica). Finalmente, encontrou-se que a confiança exerce influência positiva sobre a satisfação econômica e social, tanto da montadora quanto dos fornecedores. De modo geral, à luz dos casos analisados, algumas conclusões puderam ser extraídas em relação ao OBA: (i) essa ferramenta, na prática, tem pouca utilidade; (ii) é desvirtuada de seu propósito principal - gestão de custos na cadeia de suprimentos -; (iii) não necessariamente gera benefícios para todas as empresas envolvidas no processo; e (iv) não é, necessariamente, uma ferramenta de IOCM. Concluiu-se, ainda, que existe um descolamento entre a literatura e a realidade das empresas pesquisadas em relação aos assuntos tratados nesta tese. / This research aimed to identify, by the perspective of the Transaction Cost Economics, how the Open-Book Accounting and the trust influence the satisfaction in the relationship between suppliers and buyer on the automotive sector supply chain. The research was developed through multiple cases study, characterized as explanatory, consisting in a automaker and three of its direct suppliers (first tier). For data collection were used, in addition to documental analysis, semi-structured interviews, in which the speech was analyzed using content analysis. The results show that the OBA is unilateral, forced by the automaker, thus becoming a selective information process, once the vendors try to, as far as possible, protect the value of their information. It was found also that the OBA is used mainly to price adjustments and in conflicting conditions based more on pressure to reduce costs than on joint strategies. The detail level of the information shared presents positively correlation with the probability of price adjustment grant claimed by suppliers. The results shows that the trust is just partial (calculative trust) and the cooperation is not spontaneous, being motivated by the search of benefits. It was also verified that, depending on how the information is used by the automaker, the OBA can have a positive or negative effect on the economic and social satisfaction of the suppliers. For the same reason, the OBA can either generate as much as destroy trust in the relationship. Although suppliers have reported high satisfaction with OBA, paradoxically it was found that none of them share their information spontaneously, leading to the conclusion that they perceive little advantage in the application of OBA. The results indicate that satisfaction of the automaker with the OBA is related to the level of information detail: the more detailed, the greater satisfaction of the automaker with the OBA and the economic-financial results arising from relationships (economic satisfaction). Finally, it was found that the trust has a positive influence on the economic and social satisfaction of both the automaker as suppliers. Generally, considering the analyzed cases, some conclusions could be drawn relative to the OBA in practice: (i) this tool have little utility; (ii) is distorted on its primary purpose - cost management in the supply chain -; (iii) does not necessarily generate benefits for all companies involved in the process; and (iv) it is not necessarily an IOCM tool. It was also possible to conclude that there is a detachment between literature and reality on the companies surveyed in relation to the matters dealt with in this thesis

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo propor uma estrutura conceitual para análise de como se dá a relação entre as normas contratuais formais e relacionais na composição da estrutura de governança das relações interorganizacionais. A pesquisa foi fundamentada nas teorias dos Contratos Relacionais, na literatura de contratos formais em relações interorganizacionais e na Teoria Economia dos Custos de Transação. É argumentado que em diferentes contextos transacionais a função e o conteúdo dos acordos formais, bem como o conteúdo dos acordos relacionais diferem. Sendo a presente pesquisa qualitativa-exploratória, foram analisadas seis relações interorganizacionais, quais sejam: as relações de três empresas incubadas em diferentes estágios de incubação; a relação de uma empresa com o conglomerado formal do qual a mesma participa; a relação de uma empresa calçadista e seus fornecedores, sendo todos participantes de um conglomerado informal de empresas; a relação de uma usina e seus fornecedores de cana-de-açúcar, uma vez que estas relações tendem a ser de longa duração. Para aplicação da Análise do Conteúdo foram seguidas as fases de pré-análise, exploração do material, e tratamento dos resultados e interpretações conforme Bardin (2011). A partir do protocolo de coleta de dados, as entrevistas transcritas foram exploradas a partir das categorias do protocolo. Considerando as proposições elaboradas observou-se que as características contextuais \'incerteza\', \'dificuldade de mensuração de performance\' e \'especificidade de ativos\' corroboram a presença de maior formalidade contratual na relação nos casos extremos de menor e maior intensidade dessas características. Diferentemente, a característica de expectativa de continuidade aparece de maneira homogênea em todas as relações analisadas, não sendo possível indicar tal variável como tendo a função diferenciadora na composição contratual. Na análise dos aspectos exploratórios observou-se que fatores como troca de conhecimento, aprendizagem e manutenção de padrão de qualidade do recurso transacionado, o ciclo de vida da organização, a atuação em mercados internacionais e a cultura destes mercados para a negociação, o setor de atuação da empresa e a existência de diversidade em formas de obtenção de insumos, alteram a percepção de presença e intensidade das variáveis que determinam o contexto no qual as relações são governadas alterando, por sua vez, a composição da estrutura de governança destas relações. Também foi verificado que o ciclo de vida, o tamanho da empresa e o tipo de insumo transacionado, foram indicados como aspectos que alteram o padrão da relação no espectro relacional, indicando que tais fatores poderiam também compor o modelo de análise de conteúdo contratual proposto neste trabalho. No que se refere ao conteúdo relacional, não foi possível verificar homogeneidade na composição das normas relacionais utilizadas, indicando que, possivelmente, a alteração do contexto da relação influencia a intensidade com que as normas relacionais são utilizadas, corroborando para a hipótese desta pesquisa. Na análise do conteúdo contratual formal, suas funções e nível complexidade, verificou-se que, na presença de maior intensidade de incerteza, dificuldade da mensuração da performance e especificidade de ativos, a complexidade dos contratos formais tende a ser influenciada por estas características contextuais. Em se tratando das funções contratuais formais, destaca-se que, apenas nos casos em que há especificidade de ativos de maneira mais intensa, houve corroboração da função contratual de salvaguardar. / This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework for analyzing how is the relationship between formal and relational contracts in the composition of the governance structure of inter-organizational relationships. The research was based on the theories of Relational Contracts, in the literature of formal agreements on inter-organizational relationships and Theory Economics of Transaction Costs. It is argued that in different transactional contexts the function and content of formal agreements, as well as the content of relational agreements differ. As this is a qualitative exploratory study, we analyzed six inter-organizational relationships using the Content Analysis applied on collected and transcribed interviews, namely: the relationship of three companies incubated at different stages of incubation; the relationship of a company with the formal conglomerate which it participates; the relationship of a footwear company and its suppliers, which all share an informal group of companies; the ratio of a plant and its sugarcane suppliers, since these links tend to be long lasting. From elaborated propositions, it was revealed that the contextual characteristics \'uncertainty\', \'difficulty in measuring performance\' and \'asset specificity\' support the presence of more contractual formality in relation to extreme cases of lower and higher intensity of these characteristics. Unlikely, the continuity of expectation feature appears evenly in all analyzed relationships, not being possible to indicate such a variable as having a distinctive role in the contractual composition. In the analysis of exploratory aspects, it was observed that factors such as exchange of knowledge, learning and standard of maintenance quality transacted resource, the organization\'s life cycle, the performance in international markets and culture of these markets for trading, the sector the company operates, and the existence of diversity in ways of obtaining inputs, change the perception of presence and intensity of the variables that determine the context in which the relationships are governed changing, in turn, the composition of the governance structure of these relationships. It was also found that the life cycle, company size and type of traded inputs (i.e. presence / absence of technology and innovation in the contracted feature), were indicated as aspects that alter the pattern of the relationship in the relational spectrum, indicating that such factors could also compose the contractual content analysis model proposed in this paper. With regard to the relational content, it was not possible to verify the homogeneity in the composition of the relational rules used, indicating that, possibly, different contexts influence the intensity with which the relational rules are used, supporting the hypothesis for this study. In the analysis of the formal contract content, its functions and complexity level, it was found that in the presence of higher intensity of uncertainty, difficulty of measuring the performance and asset specificity, the complexity of the formal contract tends to be influenced by these contextual characteristics. In the case of formal contractual functions (i.e. safeguard, coordinate, adapt), it is emphasized that only in cases where there is intense asset specificity, there was corroboration of the contractual function of safeguarding.

As relações interorganizacionais, em seu contexto mais específico da gestão de custos interorganizacionais (GCI), geram aos participantes dificuldades quanto à falta de confiança, ao modo como os benefícios serão compartilhados, se as informações são verídicas, entre outros problemas. No âmbito das pesquisas interorganizacionais, o ambiente competitivo de Investor-owend Firms (IOFs) tem se favorecido. Nesse contexto, a pesquisa nas relações com as cooperativas pode favorecer tanto a literatura da GCI, quanto ajudar no segmento cooperativo agrícola, que tem perdido produtos para IOFs dos seus cooperados. Nessa visão, a pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar se e como se estabelece a configuração da GCI nas cooperativas e IOFs da cadeia de valor do café, comparando-as e relacionando as variáveis já discutidas na literatura de GCI, com a base teórica da ECT, enfoque desta tese. Utilizou-se a pesquisa qualitativa, com entrevistas semiestruturada, individuais, com produtores rurais, representantes de cooperativas e IOFs, que comercializem café e tenham relação direta, delimitados geograficamente no estado de São Paulo e Minas Gerais. Foi realizado um pré-teste, com um produtor rural, uma cooperativa e uma IOF, para validação das questões da entrevista. Posteriormente, realizou-se a análise de similitude pelo software IRAMUTEQ, confirmando as variáveis e abrindo a possibilidade de estudar uma variável nova (fidelidade comercial) não contemplada na literatura interorganizacional. Realizadas as entrevistas, com as novas questões inseridas, um total de 21 para produtores e 21 para cooperativas e IOFs, as respostas foram transcritas, utilizando o software Atlas TI para a contagem e as variações das palavras, conferindo quais estavam relacionadas com cada uma das variáveis para, assim, organizar e fazer a análise de conteúdo. Como resultado, identificou-se a relação das variáveis de GCI e ECT entre elas, dado a qualidade-funcionalidade no âmbito cafeeiro não limitar o preço pago ao produtor rural, que utiliza a qualidade-funcionalidade para aumentar o preço e o mercado futuro para minimização da incerteza na oscilação do mercado. Percebeu-se a prática do OBA na relação unilateral produtor-cooperativa, com informações acerca da qualidade e produção e também de forma unilateral, verificando que os benefícios, a cooperação e a (inter)-dependência ocorriam nesta relação. Na variável (inter)-dependência, notou-se, pelos relatos dos produtores, a utilização da venda de insumos e armazenagem na cooperativa de forma oportunista, fazendo com que o produtor tenha que manter a estabilidade da relação, para poder ter os benefícios oferecidos pela cooperativa e não arcar com taxas da retirada do café, percebendo também a falta de visão dos produtores quanto aos resultados futuros das compras com trocas de café. Ainda na prática do OBA, evidenciou-se a ocorrência de forma indireta, com informações sobre os custos dos produtores rurais, pelo programa EDUCAMPO, repassados à cooperativa. No comparativo das duas relações produtor-cooperativa e produtor-IOF, a prática da GCI é mais favorável nas cooperativas com os produtores, também no tipo de cadeia, contrariando a literatura que evidenciava essa relação ser mais democrática, sendo que, pela pesquisa, verificou-se ser mais tipificada do principal a familiar. Também nos ativos específicos, verificou-se que as cooperativas oferecem mais especificidades que as IOFs, a ponto de o produtor rural gerar uma fidelidade comercial de forma não exclusiva. / Interorganizational relations in their more specific context of interorganizational cost management (IOCM) give participants difficulties regarding lack of confidence, how benefits will be shared, if information is truthful, among other problems. In the scope of interorganizational research, the competitive environment of Investor-owned Firms (IOFs) has been favored. In this context, the research on relations with cooperatives can favor both the literature of the IOCM and help in the agricultural cooperative segment that has lost products to IOFs of its members. In this view, the research aims to verify if and how to establish the IOCM configuration in cooperatives and IOFs of the coffee value chain, comparing them and relating the variables already discussed in the release of IOCM with the theoretical basis of the transation cost economics (TCE) approach of this thesis. The qualitative research was used, with individual semi-structured interviews with farmers, representatives of cooperatives and IOFs that commercialize coffee and have a direct relations, delimited geographically in the state of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. A pre-test was carried out, with a rural producer, a cooperative and an IOF, to validate interview questions. Subsequently, the analysis of similitude was performed by the software IRAMUTEQ, confirming the variables and opening the possibility of studying a new variable (commercial loyalty) not contemplated in the interorganizational literature. After the interview with the new questions, a total of 21 for producers and 21 for cooperatives and IOFs, transcribed, Atlas TI software was used for counting and the variations of the words conferring which were related to each one of the variables, in order to organize and do content analysis. As a result, it identified the relationship between the IOCM and TCE variables among them, given that the quality-functionality in the coffee field does not limit the price paid to the rural producer, which uses quality-functionality to increase the price and the future market to minimize uncertainty in oscillation of the market. It was perceived the practice of the OBA in the unilateral producer-cooperative relationship, with information about quality and production and also unilaterally, found that benefits, cooperation and (inter)-dependence occurred in this relationship. In the (inter)-dependence variable, it was noticed by the producers\' reports the use of the sale of inputs and storage in the cooperative in an opportunistic way, causing the producer to maintain the stability of the relationship, in order to have the benefits offered by cooperative and not to pay coffee withdrawal rates, noting also the lack of vision of the producers regarding the future results of purchases with coffee exchanges. Also in the OBA practice, the occurrence of an indirect form was evidenced, with information on the costs of the rural producers, through the EDUCAMPO program, passed on to the cooperative. In the comparison of the two producer-cooperative and producer-IOF relations, the practice of the IOCM is more favorable in cooperatives with producers, also in the type of chain, contrary to the literature that showed this relationship to be more democratic and by the research found to be more typified of the and the specific assets that the cooperatives offer more specificities than the IOFs, to the extent that the rural producer generates a commercial loyalty in a non-exclusive way.