Qualidade no relacionamento entre indústrias e produtores de leite: análise da mesorregião noroeste do Rio Grande do Sul

This study identified the impact of relationship quality on the performance of milk producers and the processing industry in the Northwest mesoregion of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. This proposal was theoretically based on the economics of transaction costs and, methodologically, on the modeling of Structural Equations with Partial Least Squares (PLS-PM/PLS-SEM) based on 123 questionnaires applied to dairy farmers in the period between October 2019 and March 2020. Results indicated that the quality of the relationship between milk producers and the processing industry, when analyzed from antecedent and consequent factors, is positively influenced by frequency and negatively influenced by uncertainty and opportunism, which positively influences the perceived performance. This better performance provided more adequate conditions for the management of the production and commercialization process, leading to better financial and non-financial results, which occur both through the realization of prices and profits as well as the growth of the milk producing establishment. Also, it was observed that to a large extent the producer considers that the behavior of the industry is based on trust. Evidencing that producer-industry collaboration can advance both in formal and technical terms as well as in productive and commercial terms.