Abstract:

  The article studies the organizational performance of professional associations through a governance approach. It focuses on the case of the poultry sector. As a group of professionals that defend their interests, theses associations must improve their performance, which means the degree of achieving their objectives such as: Lobbying government bodies (Ministry, Parliament, etc.); production scheduling and pricing (under certain conditions), improving product and process quality, research and development, and promoting consumption and exports by seeking out new markets. To achieve those objectives, a good governance is well needed. The usefulness of governance in professional associations comes also from the following constraints: Members’ diversity, lack of interaction and difficulties in creating and diffusing information. However, governance alone is not sufficient. The state will to develop a certain sector is primordial as we saw in the case of poultry sector in Brazil and Thailand. This support includes: Support for the emergence of global giants through equity investment and approval of M&A, external growth transactions in the form of loans and bond purchases, and encouraging SMEs to over-invest, government support for the economic and industrial concentration of actors, massive tax exemptions on exports and bilateral market opening negotiations.