Understanding the hierarchy governance choice of some wineries in Brazil - case study of 3 Brazilian wineries

ABSTRACT This study aims to contribute towards understanding the multiple factors, which influence firm's governance decisions. To identify some of these factors, three cases in the Brazilian wine industry were analyzed: Miolo located in Vale dos Vinhedos (South of Brazil) and in Vale do Rio São Francisco (Northeast of Brazil); Don Laurindo located in Vale dos Vinhedos; and ViniBrasil located in Vale do Rio São Francisco. For the most part, all three firms procure the grapes they use for their wine production in-house. Only Miolo purchases an insignificant amount of grapes outside of its production. By Brazilian standards, these regions have a long tradition of grape production and it is not difficult to purchase sufficient quantity of grapes to produce wine. However, the wineries are concerned also about the quality of the grapes they use and purchasing high-quality grapes might be critical issue. On the other hand, the quality of grapes is easily measured and the cost to buy in the market is cheaper than producing in-house. Furthermore, also the level of asset specificity present in the grape-grower-wine-producer transaction seems, by itself, insufficient to justify the use of hierarchical governance forms. Then, the aim of the article is to analyze the reasons why these wineries largely rely on hierarchy governance forms to procure their grape-inputs. What explains their use of hierarchy governance, given that both asset specificity and measurement problems appear to be relatively low?

摘要：
本研究旨在增进对影响企业治理决策的多重因素的理解。为识别此类影响因素，本研究选取巴西葡萄酒产业中的三个案例展开分析：分别是布局于维纽多斯谷（Vale dos Vinhedos，巴西南部）与圣弗朗西斯科河谷（Vale do Rio São Francisco，巴东北部）的米奥洛（Miolo）酒庄、布局于维纽多斯谷的唐劳林多（Don Laurindo）酒庄，以及布局于圣弗朗西斯科河谷的维尼布拉西尔（ViniBrasil）酒庄。

整体而言，三家酒庄的葡萄酒生产用葡萄均为内部采购，仅米奥洛酒庄会从外部采购少量葡萄。按照巴西当地标准，上述地区拥有悠久的葡萄种植传统，采购足够数量的酿酒葡萄并非难事。但三家酒庄同样关注酿酒葡萄的品质，采购高品质葡萄或是核心议题。

此外，葡萄品质易于量化，市场采购成本亦低于内部自产。葡萄种植者-葡萄酒生产商交易中的资产专用性（asset specificity）水平，本身似乎并不足以支撑采用层级治理模式的合理性。据此，本文旨在分析为何这些酒庄大多依赖层级治理模式以采购酿酒葡萄原料。鉴于资产专用性与测量难度均相对较低，究竟何种因素能够解释这些酒庄对层级治理模式的采用？