What accounts for plural forms of governance structure in the same industry or firm – The case of the Brazilian electricity industry

Abstract

Governance structures are described as a spectrum with the market and vertical integration as its poles. During the past decades, the theoretical and empirical work aligned with New Institutional Economics sought to understand the factors that determine which transactions will run through the market and which will run within the firms. However, the existence of plural forms of institutional arrangements in the same productive chain defies logic theories that study the vertical borders of the firms. Thus, the goal of this article is to investigate these plural forms in the Free Contracting Environment of the Brazilian Electricity Industry. We used a qualitative approach and resorted to a case study strategy in order to understand the adoption of distinct governance structures within a single transaction. Our analysis suggests five propositions that can be tested. Theses propositions are related to manager’s background, market price volatility, legal delays, type of ownership and institutional environment, and effects of innovation on the governance structure.