TEORIA DA AGÊNCIA EM PROCESSOS DE SUCESSÃO: UM OLHAR COM BASE NOS MODELOS DE NEGÓCIOS FAMILIARES RURAIS

Abstract

Farm succession discussions emerge against a backdrop of emptying and aging rural population, lack of preparation of successors, family conflicts involving the transfer of the management and the complexity of choosing a successor. A re-reading of agency theory has addressed principal-principal agency conflicts concerning family businesses that belong to owner-relatives. The assumption is that the succession process can lead to the agency conflicts and the way in which successors and heirs face this situation can occur at the level of professionalization of the family farm business, regardless of the business model. The general objective is the analysis of the succession processes from the perspective of the principal-principal agency theory. Specifically: analyzing how households have been dealt with the key challenges of the property axis; identify the existence of principal-principal agency conflicts in the succession process in family farm business models; and, assess whether the level of professionalization achieved is related to the business model adopted by the families. This is a multi-case research developed in three phases: validation of models with interviews with four professionals; identification of properties and interviews in six family farm business, totaling 22 respondents, in Mato Grosso do Sul and Santa Catarina.; and, transcription and data analysis. The results indicate that the absence of conflicts occurred in cases where the trust level is high and the main control mechanism is relational governance. Parental altruism was present in all analyzed cases. How the family handles the succession process influences the level of professionalization, but the business model does not have the same effect. Inserting non-heir family members makes the business susceptible to the emergence of conflicts. The cases were classified into three scenarios: I - small-sized properties that cannot support many members, II - medium-sized properties where all children are financially dependent on the family business; and III - large properties, with only one successor remaining in the business.