Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management最新文献

This article analyzes the impact of participation in collective actions on the economic, social and environmental sustainability of fruit and vegetable farmers in the microregion of Toledo, Brazil. Through cross-sectional data analysis, we use a regression adjustment with the inverse probability weighted to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated. The results show a positive impact on sustainability indicators. However, there is a stronger impact economically than socially or environmentally. These findings suggest that participation in collective action can be an important strategy for farmers, as it reduces transaction costs and allows for greater access to information and knowledge, thus improving farmers’ sustainability.

This study assessed the factors determining farmers’ membership of dairy cooperatives in Thailand using primary data acquired from 385 randomly selected dairy farmers in central and north-eastern regions of Thailand. Two types of farmers were surveyed: members of dairy cooperatives and members of private organizations representing the two key marketing channels. The results of the binary logit regression model showed that educational level, dairy farming experience, herd size and distance to the milk collecting centres had positive significant influence whereas the square of the herd size and monthly payment period had negative significant influence on farmers’ membership of the cooperatives. The policy recommendations are presented.

Cooperatives as can be presumed to rely on the economic cooperation of their members. However, game-theoretic and institutional models suggest that cooperatives may be inherently fragile due to the individual costs of cooperation. Because of this it is widely believed that organizations which rely less on cooperation may be more stable, while organizations that require cooperation may be at higher risk of folding. Therefore, if cooperatively owned or managed businesses do in fact require higher levels of prosocial and cooperative behavior than hierarchically managed firms, they must attract and maintain cooperation among participants in order to function. We hypothesized that successful consumer food cooperatives will exhibit greater generalized cooperation than conventional grocery stores. We employed an experimental dictator game to measure altruistic cooperation among consumers at a food cooperative and a comparable conventional grocery. Cooperative customers exhibit a higher base rate of cooperation than similar conventional shoppers, and this relationship holds even when taking demographic factors such as income, education, and age into account. We conclude that, when successful, consumer cooperatives exhibit greater levels of cooperation than comparable traditional businesses.

A significant number of cooperatives in the world have a reserve fund. Among cooperative members and leaders as well as researchers, a reserve fund is considered as an indispensable tool for the maintenance and success of the organisation. This article analyses the essence of reserve funds and their operation. It is demonstrated that the existence of this specific fund constitutes a deterioration in the quality of service provided by the cooperative to its members. It is suggested that the absence of reserve funds in a cooperative leads to an increase in the quality of service provided to members. Two case studies of rural primary cooperatives (moshavim) and one of secondary cooperatives (regional purchasing organizations) in Israel are presented. These associations have been operating successfully for a number decades without profit or deficit and do not maintain reserve funds. The cooperatives are founded by and for members who want to pay the lowest possible cost of participation, and the case studies demonstrate that they can operate efficiently and stably over time without relying on reserve funds.

At present, as energy security has become one of the highest priorities discussed globally, swift social, ecological and economic changes in the energy market are taking place. In many countries, local cooperatives have been established that intend, among other goals, to purchase power grids and increase renewable energy production. This paper presents the outcomes of a research project devoted to one specific case – BürgerEnergie Berlin (BEB). This cooperative, which is bidding for a twenty-year concession to the Berlin power grid (the biggest in Germany), intends to modernise it after the purchase in order to change it into a smart grid and enable a number of local renewable sources to connect to it. A key success factors model for this cooperative – based on field studies and the use of inductive reasoning – is the original contribution to existing research on energy cooperatives. The presented qualitative analysis, taking into account the details of the process of bidding for the concession, can be an inspiration to cooperative researchers and practitioners and a contribution to a future discussion on alternative solutions to the issues of public utilities ownership and their management.

Agricultural cooperatives have been extremely successful at producing and bringing food to billions of consumers around the world. Arguably, such success is caused by their superb ability to constantly adapt to the changing needs of their members and consumers. They do this by slightly modifying (tinkering) or completely altering (reinventing) their organizational design. This issue has not been studied in the context of agricultural cooperatives in former Soviet countries. Given the rising importance of agricultural cooperatives in such countries, however, understanding how cooperative adapt to the evolving preferences of their members and customers becomes of utter importance for both cooperative practitioners and policy makers. The current paper addresses the abovementioned knowledge gap. In particular, it identifies the ownership and governance models adopted by Estonian agricultural cooperatives, and provide key insights into how these organizations adapt to the changing needs of their members, consumers, and their external environment. Estonian agricultural cooperatives exhibit little experimentation with non-traditional ownership and governance models. This is due to the lack of technical expertise in the country, the relatively small size of the country’s agricultural cooperatives, and their predominantly defensive strategies. Similarly to other European countries, tinkering is of outmost importance for Estonian agricultural cooperatives.

While in many European countries co-operative entrepreneurship manages to fulfill its economic and social functions successfully, in Croatia a large majority of almost 1200 registered co-operatives struggle hard to accomplish in demanding market conditions while sustaining their social dimension and few succeed. Only 19% of co-operatives accounted for 96% of overall income earned by Croatian co-operatives in 2015. We critically examine obstacles related to external legal, policy, infrastructural and other conditions that are either insufficient, completely missing or, if existent, adversely affect co-operatives. The obstacles were indicated by co-operatives themselves in a qualitative research project conducted between September 2017 and March 2018. We offer two possible explanations for the existence of the obstacles: one concerning immaturity of the Croatian institutional system, the other related to cronyism pervading the system. We see bottom-up integration of the co-operative sector, based on the principle of co-operation among co-operatives, as the best way of moving forward.

The annual demand for beef has been increasing in Indonesia. One of the government strategies to develop cattle production and empower cattle farmers is by developing farmer groups to support farmers and promote entrepreneurship. This article explores the work of a farmer group called BPWU which employs internal and external social networking to empower farmers in the villages. The research questions are the following: (1) What are the strategies used by BPWU to develop its business? and (2) What are the impacts of BPWU existence in providing social changes to its surrounding population? The data were collected from July 2015 to December 2016 using interviews, observations, and focus group discussion. Based on the findings, the farmers’ livelihoods have improved because of the building of social relations internally and externally. The internal social relations were developed among cattle farmer groups related to BPWU, whereas the external social relations were built with local residents, educational institutions, officials of the Animal Husbandry of Tuban Regency, officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, financial institutions, and cattle traders from various areas. BPWU has managed to open work opportunities, impart a technological change in beef-cattle cultivation, increase the beef availability, and contribute to rural development.

Although purely economic (conventional) reasons play a significant role in the development and performance of (agricultural) cooperatives; so do other (non-conventional) factors. A comprehensive assessment of co-operatives therefore requires an examination of non-conventional factors, in addition to the conventional factors. Three such non-conventional factors identified in the literature are 1) commitment, 2) heterogeneity and 3) social capital. Commitment is important for agricultural co-operatives because one pre-requisite for successful agricultural co-operatives is that farmer-members are willing to supply the co-operative with raw products, capital and managerial inputs. In this research affective, continuance, normative and other aspects of member commitment are examined. Heterogeneity is an important source of concern for co-operatives due to its impact on cohesiveness and collective decision making. This study used characteristics associated with the farmer-member and the farm-business to examine heterogeneity. It has been suggested that the social capital paradigm is the common denominator for all explanations and theories on co-operative formation and development. A modified version of the six dimensions’ framework used by the World Bank to assess social capital was used in this study. Based on this theoretical underpinning, a Three Dimensional Conceptual Framework, that encapsulates commitment, heterogeneity and social capital is developed and described.

Mining Co-operatives wield significant influence over the mining sector. These organizations have been getting increasing importance to support diggers through initiatives and policies to improve small-scale mining activities. In spite of the importance of cooperatives to the local communities, studies on their role and contribution towards sustainable business practices in the sector are still scarce. This paper investigates the scenario of mining Co-operatives in Brazil through a set of interviews to the managers of these Co-operatives, which allowed to conclude on the relevance of the sector to establish a sustainable network into the mining sector in the country. The results indicated some key concerns related to lack of awareness towards cooperative principles and environmental impacts and the reduced engagement with local community. The need to improve knowledge and academic background of both diggers and managers emerged as a major challenge to be overcome to ensure that cooperative principles are effectively put in place and guide the cooperatives towards sustainable development