| Agri-product markets are vital to people’s livelihood and have an important position in ensuring food supply for urban residents.With the impact of consumer upgrade,increased competition in the fresh food retail industry and improved governance capability in recent years,agri-product markets in major cities in China are undergoing tremendous changes.As the first city in China to introduce the "Vegetable Basket Project," the changes in Shanghai’s agri-product markets are particularly typical.In the second round of government-led standardized agri-product markets,agri-product market management companies are seen as key to the transformation and upgrading of agri-product markets,and are beginning to participate in the daily operation of agri-product markets.This organizational change is subtly changing the operation mode of traditional agri-product markets.The study of "management company+merchant" joint venture agri-product markets in Shanghai is of great theoretical and practical significance for exploring the food supply model in the construction of people’s cities and promoting the transformation and upgrading of agri-product markets.This paper uses the theoretical perspective of organizational decision analysis to explore the organizational operation mechanism of the "management company+merchant" joint venture agri-product market,based on the changes in the agri-product market industry in Shanghai and the division of labor between the management company and the merchants in the daily operation of the agri-product market,using agri-product market G under agri-product market management company Z as a case study.The study reveals that the current organizational environment of Shanghai’s agri-product markets is a complex one consisting of market rules,circulation rules,and governance rules.The emergence of the "management company+merchant" joint venture agri-product markets is a response to the demands of different actors in the external environment at all levels.In the daily operation of agri-product market,the management company and the merchants are able to negotiate and cooperate to build a concrete action system,so that internally they can use the formal rules represented by the contractual governance and the informal relationship between the members of the organization to deal with internal conflicts,and externally they can respond to the challenges posed by the market rules,distribution rules and governance rules with organized actions.The key to the maintenance of this concrete action system lies in the construction of a two-tiered system of both unified and separate operations.The two-tiered system mechanism enables management companies and merchants who play the role of relay,to respond to the uncertainty brought about by governance rules and circulation rules in the organizational environment according to their environmental construction capabilities.The integration mechanism of both unified and separate operations enables management companies and merchants to establish organized cooperation,so as to respond to internal conflicts within the organization and many uncertainties created by market rules.The principle is to rely on the management company’s intervention in the operation of agri-product market in order to ensure the autonomy and motivation of the merchants,resolve internal disputes and improve the competitiveness of the market.Finally,the paper also points out that there are limits to this mechanism of a two-tiered system of both unified and separate operations,which is difficult to adapt to a highly competitive environment and to respond effectively to the overall risks of the organizational environment. |
