ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the basics of this development of the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) approach, whereby particular attention is paid to one concept orientated to behavioural sciences. It presents an SCP approach, developed as a model to examine urban and peri-urban horticultural production. The chapter aims to compare the key advantages and disadvantages of the theoretical concept, and discusses empirical observations as examples fear specific criteria of this approach. The essential impulses for the SCP approach came from J. S. Bain’s contribution to industrial organisation. The SCP approach extended by J. D. Shaffer to include behavioural science has an advantage over earlier SCP models in that it sees the future development of the market structure in its interdependent relationship to market behaviour and to the performance of the system. The development of the SCP approach shows a strong socio-economic orientation under the influence of the ‘New Political Economy’ and the ‘Institutional Economy’.
