THE ROAD TO ABRABOR: ASSOCIATIONISM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRAZILIAN NATURAL RUBBER INDUSTRY

Abstract

Brazilian natural rubber industry has lived its greatest expansion in the past 25 years. The State of São Paulo was the main area of expansion and, the development of associative activities in this region were paramount in helping to establish a wide net of positive interactions between farmers, processors and government with crucial benefits to the establishment of the Brazilian Natural Rubber Industry. Further, natural rubber cultivation has been expanded to neighboring States of São Paulo, mainly: Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goias, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Bahia and later Paraná. Such expansion has led local industry agents also to create associations that recently, in the year of 2016, came together under one Federal representation named ABRABOR. This paper intends to describe such phenomenon through a multi-case study of the current institutions associated to ABRABOR analyzing each state characteristics together with each institution incentive offers. Next, this characterization will be analyzed factoring in the compatibility of the governance structure of each entity, regarding the compliance with the demand of associates on each State, thus providing resources for an efficiency assessment of such groups. Later, the same criteria will be applied for analyzing their efficiency at national level representation.

Keywords: collective action, polycentric Framework, industry strategy, associativism, natural rubber