Abstract  The objective of this study was to identify the governance structures used by agricultural cooperatives in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and Paraná (PR), verifying the degree of incentives, the use of contracts and administrative controls. Supported by the Economics of Transaction Costs, a qualitative and quantitative study was carried out applied to 40 cooperatives (20 in each state). The governance structures that are most present in the activities of agricultural cooperatives in RS are hybrids with hierarchical features (30%) and hybrids with market features (30%). For cooperatives in PR, the most common form is hybrid (45%) and hybrids with traces of hierarchy (25%). Regarding the “incentives” variable, it was noticeable that on average 82.5% of the 40 responding cooperatives showed a ‘strong degree’ of adoption of incentives, in terms of offering financing, technical assistance, courses and training. Regarding the variable “administrative controls”, on average 85% of the 40 responding cooperatives present a ‘strong degree’ of adoption of administrative controls, with software to assist in decision-making, as well as accounting and auditing controls. Cooperatives in RS and PR use more than one form of contract, which justifies the predominance of hybrid structures in their transactions.

Keywords:
hybrid governance; administrative controls; adoption of incentives; contracts