Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics最新文献

Although research on the impacts of agricultural cooperatives is growing, studies on the effects of dairy cooperative membership on food security in developing countries remain scarce. This article follows the same line of inquiry to determine the impact of dairy cooperative membership on food and nutrition security (household dietary diversity score and food insecurity experience score) using data from 515 rural dairy farmers in Zambia. To account for selection bias issues, we use the endogenous switching Poisson regression model supplemented with the Poisson regression with endogenous treatment and machine learning techniques. Results indicate that age, education, dairy farming experience and participation in seminars on cooperatives positively influence dairy cooperative membership. Conversely, higher milk prices at collection centres are associated with a decreased likelihood of cooperative membership. We find that dairy cooperative membership increases dietary diversity and food security for a dairy farmer and dairy cooperative members as well as the non-members if they joined dairy cooperatives. Further, dairy cooperative membership increases food and nutrition security for dairy farmers who join cooperatives because they are nearby. Collectively, our results support increased dairy cooperative development in rural areas to improve food and nutrition security of rural dwellers in developing countries.

The competitiveness of Catalan agri-food cooperatives is studied from a new point of view, their internationalization and specifically the effects on internationalization due to the adoption of quality certifications. Most of the previous research focuses on organizational, economic and commercial aspects, and there are few works linking both fields. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyse the behaviour of the relationship between internationalization and certification. For this purpose, the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test for two independent samples and boxplot analysis were used. The results of this research show a positive relationship between different certification systems and internationalization. Empirical evidence was found: Exporting cooperatives that adopt ISO 9001 or a production system certification have a higher export intensity and geographical diversification than those that do not adopt it.

Most of South Sudan's rural population ekes out a living from farming in a fragile context characterized by compounding and interrelated shocks. The productivity of maize, a key staple, has remained comparatively low. South Sudan is currently transforming its agricultural sector to be at the centre of its economic activity. Programming has zoomed in on seed-related interventions. Cooperatives, which are longstanding and widespread in the country, are leveraged to distribute seed and, by mitigating production risk, could contribute to resilient development. To shed light on the key functions of cooperatives and how their role can be enhanced, we analysed recent data from 1247 maize-producing households and 126 agricultural cooperatives from South Sudan. We find that through their services cooperatives contribute to both increasing maize yields and reducing their variability. Yield increases associated with seed production and/or distribution services are substantial but exclusive to members. Managerial capital in the form of a hired manager instead also generates spillover effects to the broader community. Our findings point to the relevance of cooperatives as indispensable stakeholders for the resilient development of the country and the need for investments to strengthen their managerial capital and enhance the provision of services related to seed production and/or distribution.

This paper aims to elucidate the relationship between members' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within consumer cooperatives, their loyalty towards the cooperatives and the mediating roles of psychological ownership and consumer citizenship behaviour. A sample comprising 773 members of four Korean consumer cooperative federations was constructed and analysed using the structural equation model. In Korea, consumer cooperatives have developed a production and distribution network for eco-friendly organic agricultural products. In addition, they have grown by practicing social responsibility as a primary organizational goal with consumer members. The results show that CSR perceptions have a direct effect on member loyalty, and psychological ownership and customer citizenship behaviour serially mediate the relationship between perceived CSR and member loyalty. This paper provides empirical support for suggestions about the factors influencing member loyalty within consumer cooperatives and the relative importance of non-financial motivations. It also provides a foundation upon which practitioners of cooperatives can build more effective CSR communications strategies with members.

This paper explores the long-term impact of China's Great Leap Forward (GLF) on current differences in cooperative behaviour across Chinese regions and the underlying trust channel of causality. Combining the current firm-level survey with grain yield over-reporting during the GLF era, we find that past government dishonesty regarding over-reporting in the GLF period has long-term negative consequences on people's behaviours. The firms in the prefecture with a higher degree of yield over-reporting are less likely to engage in R&D collaborations today. Further tests reveal the possible trust channel through which past government dishonesty impedes current cooperative behaviour. We extend the analyses to social norms of trust and show that GLF over-reporting has shifted an individual's internal norms towards a present-day mistrust culture, which contributes to explain the negative effect of GLF over-reporting on cooperative behaviour. Our findings suggest that dishonest behaviours by local governments in the past can lead to lasting adverse effects on an individual's behaviour in the form of mistrust and subsequent lower frequencies of cooperative behaviour, providing new insights on the origins of cultural differences and human behaviours by investigating the role of governments in shaping social and economic interactions.

The emergence of agricultural cooperatives is widely viewed as a potential institutional arrangement that can help achieve rural poverty reduction by improving farmers’ welfare in developing countries. However, empirical evidence on the effect of cooperative membership on welfare and rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa remains limited. This paper examines the effect of cooperative membership on the welfare and poverty levels of maize-farming households, using a comprehensive three-wave panel dataset from three major maize-producing regions in Ethiopia. The welfare effect of cooperative membership was estimated using a correlated random-effects regression with a control function to account for unobservable heterogeneity and the endogeneity of cooperative membership. The findings show that cooperative membership significantly increased maize yield and enhanced the welfare of maize farmers by improving household income, subsequently leading to reductions in the prevalence of income poverty and the poverty gap. Further analysis reveals that while cooperative membership is pro-poor in terms of its effect on maize yield, its effect on income and poverty tends to favour wealthier members with greater assets and extended landholdings. In this light, supporting poor and marginalized farmers with the resources needed would help improve the welfare gains from cooperative membership, thereby ensuring a more inclusive approach to poverty reduction.

The study investigates whether the choice of a financial cooperative is influenced by sustainable savings decisions through deposits or shares. The moderating influence of digital financial services (DFS) and an individual's reason for joining a financial cooperative are also investigated. Data are gathered from a cross-sectional sample of 334 respondents drawn from 86 savings and credit cooperative societies (Saccos) in Kenya. The final sample comprises of 46 deposit-taking (220 respondents) and 40 non–deposit-taking (114 respondents) Saccos. Two-sample tests, correlation and logistic regression analyses are performed to establish the factors influencing Sacco choice. Consistent with the mutual incentives and lifecycle theories, the findings reveal that an individual's choice of a financial cooperative is influenced by individual, as well as socio-economic and environmental factors. The study finds that the desire to mobilize sustainable deposits is a more important consideration compared to building shares when choosing a Sacco. We further find that DFS are important in choosing a Sacco owing to the increased engagement and transparency associated with them. Other factors influencing Sacco choice include marital status, income levels and household location. The results help inform the focus by Sacco managers, regulators and policy makers in terms of the growth incentives to consider.

Business associations (BAs) are often mentioned among formal private-order institutions that support contract enforcement. Despite their ubiquity, evidence about their actual roles is still very limited. We explore empirically four mechanisms through which they can support the credibility of contractual commitments: member selection, norm enforcement, dispute resolution and information sharing. In a developed legal context, firm-level data from an economy-wide managerial survey show that BAs support contractual trust among members, in members by outsiders as well as in outsiders by members. Member selection and information sharing stand out as the most important mechanisms: They help all three relationship types. Dispute resolution helps overcome opportunism between members only. Formalized norm enforcement is a signal of trustworthiness for outsiders. Economic theory suggests that BAs can help establish trust beyond personal and local networks. We find strong evidence that they indeed do.

Platform cooperatives, namely, businesses that sell goods or services primarily through a website, mobile app, or protocol and commit to the principles of democratic governance and shared ownership, have lately been proposed as a more sustainable, equitable and, under certain conditions, even efficient alternative to the organizational model of commercial platforms. Accordingly, they have been presented as economic institutions capable of involving all their relevant stakeholders in an extended and inclusive governance structure. Nevertheless, this emerging literature is still characterized by the lack of a holistic and analytic framework connecting the dispersed studies on the topic through the lens of stakeholder theory and detailing strategic complementarities between these different stakeholders. Related to this point, while dealing with the competitive advantages and challenges of platform cooperatives, little reference has been made to the existing debate in governance theory about the advantages and challenges of cooperative firms as compared to capitalist ones. These research gaps motivated our literature review, which is the first comprehensive systematic review specifically focused on this topic. Given the still-emerging character of the research object, our work also makes way for future updates as new contributions are gradually published.