Interbranch organisations: meso-institutions and the coordination problem

This article seeks to answer the question of how interbranch organisations (IBOs) can facilitate coordination among agents involved in transactions within agri-food chains. An IBO is a complex entity that establishes relationships among agents operating at different stages of a supply chain. The empirical analysis focuses on the Italian tomato supply chain and adopts a Process-tracing approach. The study is grounded in meso-institutions theory and demonstrates how the meso-institutional nature of the analysed IBO helps explain its role in establishing coordination among agents by performing the functions outlined by the theory. The institutional outcome of this relationship is the adoption of a contractual system that facilitates coordination itself. The contractual system identified provides an example of the articulation between the meso-institutional and micro-institutional levels.