Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management最新文献

China’s agriculture cooperatives are playing a pivotal role in promoting rural development and boosting farmers’ income. As a result of the rapidly changing external environment, diverse types of cooperatives have emerged. However, a comprehensive understanding of the organizational structures, including ownership, control, and benefit rights, of different types of cooperatives, is limited. This study analyzes the organizational structures of two types of cooperatives in China: entrepreneur-led cooperatives and government-led cooperatives. Qualitative methodology was used in this study, including semi-structured interviews with four green vegetable production cooperatives in Shandong province. Results reveal the structural differences between these two types of case cooperatives. Despite the shared ownership, control, and benefit rights among members, entrepreneur-led cooperatives are characterized by the dominance of core members in capital contribution, control rights, and dividend distribution; whereas government-led cooperatives distribute those rights more equally among all members. The findings in this study present a more comprehensive landscape of the organizational structures of China’s cooperatives. Empirically, it demonstrates how cooperatives can evolve and vary across laws and cultures, even within the same legislative background. Additionally, it offers crucial insights for these cooperatives to develop and sustain long-term vitality.

In finance markets with asymmetric information, the borrower’s relational characteristics of social capital are relevant for lenders and borrowers as they increase the possibility of access to financing and reduce default rates and transaction costs by expanding information channels while increasing the capacity to afford obligations. Especially in financial cooperatives, taking into account social capital implies recognizing the potential of the information generated by its governance structure, close relationships with local communities, and ties with members. This investigation analyses the relationship between social capital and credit risk, suggesting that social capital reduces the probability and intensity of default interaction increased during COVID-19. The quantitative analysis uses data collected from Ecuador from “Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Jardín Azuayo” (COACJA), where the Hurdle econometric model with negative binomial distribution is applied. Results show that social capital variables identified on an individual and contextual level evidence limited but significant effects in reducing the probability and intensity of default on different risk levels. Moreover, it is observed that the effect of credit application mobility, volunteering, and trust between people increases during the pandemic year.

This study investigates how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sectors reliant on online platforms in their value chain cope with dependency challenges and explores the potential of cooperative strategies to alleviate these issues. The research focuses on the Viennese hotel sector. Through qualitative content analysis and inductive category formation, the study finds that many SMEs reluctantly accept the dominance of online travel agencies (OTAs) due to established dependencies. As predicted by the resource dependence approach most SMEs search for ways to reduce these dependencies but tend to be unsure about effective responses. As cooperatives have been used in the past as an instrument to reduce dependencies, their suitability as a means for hotels to collectively build a countermeasure against OTAs was investigated in a subsequent step. The findings indicate that platform cooperatives are not considered a suitable response due to a lack of pioneers and uncertain success prospects. However, cooperative solutions that strengthen individual SMEs without directly challenging OTAs are viewed more favourably. Thus, platform cooperatives are not seen as most appropriate, but rather classical non-digital cooperatives supporting SMEs in a way that strengthen their individual position vis-à-vis online platforms.

The rice value chain in Indonesia is dominated by smallholder farmers, and the recent transformation presents bigger opportunities for them to participate in the chain system through collective action. This study identifies and describes 1) the benefits of collective action and 2) how smallholder rice farmers act collectively within a group and why. This paper presents a case study involving smallholder rice farmers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, who have worked collectively and benefited from the valuechain transformation. Data were sourced from semi-structured interviews involving relevant actors. This interview data is complemented with document studies. The finding shows that collective action helps build competitive advantage by facilitating smallholder farmers to develop their capabilities, improve their bargaining power, and bypass intermediaries. Nevertheless, this only works for smallholder farmers with a production capacity above their household needs. The findings also show that the drivers of collective action are motivation, trust, shared visions, social cohesion, good leadership, active engagement, and external support. This study contributes to knowledge about the interaction between actors within a collective group and how to develop smallholder organizations, particularly for rice commodities.

Although most SMEs are corporations, a substantial proportion are cooperatives and direct competitors in the same business areas. Cooperatives are an organizational alternative combining the ingredients for a sustainable and equal economy in its business model. However, they are often alleged to be inefficient and structurally inert compared to corporations. It is not clear how cooperatives manage to be innovative and efficient, given the characteristics of the cooperative model. Furthermore, there is a lack of understanding how an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) helps them to perform in competition. This study theoretically and empirically examines whether cooperatives benefit from EO in their multi-dimensional goal system. Additionally, the study asks how cooperative-specific collective characteristics relate to EO and performance. Using cross-sectoral data of 368 cooperatives in Switzerland and applying structural equation modelling (PLS), the results show that EO is significantly and positively linked to economic performance. Inter- and intraorganizational cooperation is associated with higher levels of EO and indirectly affects performance through EO. The results suggest that cooperatives, like other SMEs, benefit from EO in competition and can take advantage of cooperative-specific characteristics.

This paper investigates the rapid growth of Irish beef processing cooperatives during the 1960s and 1970s. They failed to hold their market position, selling out to private-owned business by the 1980s. With the benefit of hindsight this paper identifies factors influencing their development and demise. creating a picture of the business environment during their lifetime. Interviews and historical sources are used to build the story of the largest farmer-owned beef processing cooperative Cork Marts IMP. The roles of influential actors and institutions at that time are examined through the functions of an Innovation System. This paper identifies weakness such as firm structures, loyalty, technical skills and knowledge in terms of strategic management, financial planning and marketing, which all played a role in its failure. This marketing innovation of the 1960s, while brave, might now be considered naive and unlucky in having to deal with challenges that were beyond its control. This paper provides insights into competition, scale and supplier power impacting its failure and how scaling export orientated cooperatives might consider a systems-based approach in strategic planning for supporting sustained economic development. Such failures have scarred Irish agriculture as no farmer-owned beef processing business has challenged the dominance of privately-owned enterprises.

Cooperatives, as democratic organizations owned and controlled by their members, pose distinctive challenges in the realm of human resource management (HRM). These challenges stem from their commitment to serving the diverse interests of multiple stakeholders and the fundamental differentiation between member and non-member employees. In an era where sustainability and a multi-stakeholder perspective have gained prominence in HRM research, cooperatives offer an ideal context for exploring these dynamic developments. Through a comprehensive synthesis of existing literature, this review seeks to construct an HRM framework that is tailored specifically to cooperatives. It highlights how the distinctive characteristics of cooperatives, such as member self-leadership, self-control, and adherence to cooperative values and principles, shape HRM policies and practices. The insights derived from this study provide implications for guiding future research in the domain of HRM within the cooperative sector.

Using agency and economies of scale theories, this study investigates the influence of size and outreach factors on agency-related costs (ARCs) in the management of deposit-taking (DT) savings and credit co-op societies (SACCOs) in Kenya. Data are retrieved from 160 DT SACCOs in Kenya over the period 2014–2021. Both panel ordinary least squares and 2-step generalized method of moments are utilized to address the objectives of the study. The results depict that ARC levels within the global standard between 0.040 and 0.046 of the average assets with a significant decline during the Covid-19 pandemic period. We further note that as DT SACCOs scale up (in terms of the peer group), the resultant economies of scale lead to lower ARCs. More specifically, smaller DT SACCOs seem to exhibit weaker expense efficiency compared to larger ones. Finally, the results reveal that SACCOs with more members and branch offices are associated with higher ARCs. The study calls for a cautious and prudent expense management strategy by the DT SACCOs to assure solvency and self-sufficiency of the financial cooperatives in Kenya.

This paper focuses on the sustainability information voluntarily disclosed by Italian mutual banks or credit cooperative banks (CCBs) over the period 2015–2019. Our paper aims to contribute to the increasing debate on sustainability in banking sectors by investigating the quality of disclosure by Italian mutual banks, a peculiar non-profit category of banks which combine the value maximization for their stakeholders with the development of the local economy. We selected the Italian co-operative credit sector as it is one of the largest markets in Europe. We analyzed the quality of voluntary sustainability disclosure, in the light of the legitimacy theory, building an ad hoc framework which combines the three main CSR guidelines at international, national and local level (GRI, ABI and Federcasse) for Italian CCBs and content-analyzing each SR issued by the sampled CCBs. Our findings highlight a low general quality of the CSR information disclosure and a not homogeneous quality score for the different disclosed NFI category. Limits, future research directions and implications are provided.

This research examines how values congruence (person-organisation fit), affective commitment (personal preference for membership) and perceived value (e.g., quality vs price) influence the active membership of small to medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers, who are members of business co-operatives (e.g., those owned by businesses). A sample of 264 SME owner-manager members was obtained and a path model utilising SEM was used to estimate the relationships between the constructs. Significant relationships were found between all constructs. Values congruence influenced affective commitment and overall value that, in turn influenced active membership. The results provide empirical support for suggestions about the factors that influence active membership in co-operatives. Particularly those with SMEs as members. It also suggests co-operative managers should focus on ensuring there is a congruency in values with members, rather than solely focusing on members’ patronage. The paper highlights the importance of co-operatives to be built on the foundation of congruency in value, and value between the co-operative and its members, rather than solely focusing on economic outcomes.