Agroholdings in the East German Länder: an adaptation to Complex organisational environments

Abstract

In recent decades, new forms of agricultural organisation have received increasing attention, in which individual agricultural enterprises are vertically or horizontally integrated into larger business networks (holdings). This paper addresses ‘agroholdings’ as an organisational pattern that is gaining importance in the East German Länder. To explain the phenomenon, we adopted the approach of new sociological institutionalism, which understands the emergence of new organisational forms as a cultural change. The theoretical assumptions of new sociological institutionalism are largely confirmed in regional case studies conducted in East Germany. This approach appears to be a promising way to analyse current agricultural structural change.