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Abstract
In this paper we use a combination of behavioral and new institutional economic
perspectives to look at the transactions of “sustainable‐oriented” foods (e.g. organic food,
fair trade, etc.) which often assume the characteristic of credence goods. When credence
attributes are involved in the transaction (e.g. safety, fairness, etc.) information asymmetry
and uncertainty tend to reduce the likelihood of different parties to enter in the transaction1.
Because spot markets are unlikely to be used in this type of transactions, typical solutions are
the use of hybrids, vertical integration and public monitoring (Vetter and Karantininis, 2002;
Ménard and Valceschini, 2005). Moreover both consumers and producers (e.g. farmers) look
at these products from a more utilitarian (cold) then a hedonic (hot) perspective. In this paper
we address this issue by analyzing the effect of a “new” governance structure (GS) which is
emerging in credence food transactions both at local and global level. We define this GS as a
community network (CN) in which consumers and producers strongly integrate their goals by
organizing a “club”.