Relação entre governança, sucessão e natureza jurídica em empresas rurais familiares: um modelo integrativo

Abstract

When addressing organizations that are rural family businesses - the focus of this study - issues such as governance and succession gain prominence, particularly when analyzing the behavior of agents and organizations in relation to the development of the rural family business. In addition to these two aspects, the legal form of the family business, which may assume different configurations with the aim of achieving the most appropriate arrangement to ensure greater competitiveness and longevity, is another element to be considered in any management model. It is observed that, in general, issues such as governance and succession are widely addressed in literature, either individually or jointly. However, analyses that also incorporate the legal form of rural family businesses, thus forming a triple analysis of the three dimensions, are rarely found in the literature. This is where the present study is situated, proposing the integration of three themes (governance, succession, and legal form), here referred to as dimensions, applied to rural family businesses. Accordingly, the general objective of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of conflicts of interest, the relationship among the dimensions of governance, succession, and legal form in rural family businesses. The theoretical foundation of the research is Agency Theory, which the literature describes as a theory focused on conflicts, particularly those arising from the separation between control and ownership and between majority and minority shareholders, issues that are inherent to family businesses. Based on the literature review, the research hypotheses were formulated. The methodological procedures included both qualitative and quantitative stages. In the qualitative stage, in-depth interviews were conducted with agents involved in the object of study, including three entrepreneurs/partners of rural family businesses and one consultant who works with rural family enterprises. In the quantitative stage, secondary data were used, obtained from a database provided by the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (IBGC), derived from the Institute’s research entitled “Governance in Agriculture”. From this database, questions related to the research problem and objectives were extracted. The analysis of quantitative data included a descriptive stage, aimed at characterizing the sample, and an explanatory stage, using logistic regression analysis performed with the support of Jamovi software. The qualitative results indicate that the three dimensions analyzed (governance, succession, and legal form) are interrelated and are considered in the relationships among the agents involved, contributing to improved efficiency in the family business. In turn, the quantitative results demonstrate that intergenerational transition, that is, succession, positively influences the adoption of more advanced governance practices, and that the adoption of more advanced governance practices positively influences changes in the legal form of rural family businesses toward more complex models. Based on these findings, the proposed model takes the form of a pyramid, with governance at the top, positively influenced by the right base, represented by the succession dimension, while governance, in turn, positively influences the other base (left), represented by the legal form dimension. It is concluded that, despite its limitations, the study achieved its objective by proposing an integrative analytical model of the three research dimensions, thereby contributing to the advancement of scientific knowledge in studies applied to Brazilian agribusiness.