Results of decentralization and its relationships to demand satisfaction are studied in an organization of agricultural research. Three questionnaires relative to 2011 research projects in progress, filled by researchers, project coordinators and technical directors generated the data. Performance, inputs, process and external organizational environment are found to be empirically related to decentralization as predicted by contingencial theory. Centralized research benefits from human resource quality and access to information. Decentralized research benefits from users' proximity. As a consequence, centralization suggests academic quality and decentralization suggests stronger impact in agricultural practice. A decentralization agenda should be beneficial to the producers' demands as far as access to the means (physical, human, economic and organizational resources) is provided as they use to be unsatisfactory in typical decentralized conditions.
organizational centralization; organizations of C & T; agricultural research; organizational performance; research quality
