Agri‐food cooperatives allow farmers to improve their competitiveness and bargaining power. However, the specificities of their organizational form, in which owners are decision makers, suppliers, ...and clients, open the door to conflicts of interest. Members’ opportunism comes in the aftermath of this and adversely affects cooperatives’ performance. Hence, knowing the antecedents of these undesirable opportunistic behaviors is an important management concern. This study analyzes the factors that promote cooperative members opportunism by exploring the differences between memberships of first‐tier cooperatives and second‐tier cooperatives. To this end, an ordinary least squares linear regression model with interaction terms was estimated. The results show that in the case of first‐tier cooperatives, environmental uncertainty, members’ heterogeneity, and the cooperative's market orientation increase members’ opportunism, while members’ dependence on the cooperative, long‐term orientation of the relationship, and members’ market orientation reduce it. For second‐tier cooperatives, our results reveal that cooperative market orientation increases members’ opportunism, while members’ market orientation reduces it. Moreover, we find that members’ dependence on cooperatives, long‐term orientation, and environmental uncertainty have different effects on opportunism in each type of membership.
We present a literature review of the role played by agricultural cooperatives in influencing farm sustainability. We first focus on the theoretical literature to highlight the various economic ...behaviours of cooperatives. Then we investigate all three dimensions of sustainability in developing and developed countries. We aim at linking the empirical findings to the theoretical understanding of cooperatives, in particular members’ heterogeneity. This paper shows that cooperatives play a non‐negligible role in farm economic sustainability and in the adoption of environmentally friendly practices, suggesting that both public policies and private initiatives in cooperatives may be complementary. As regards social sustainability, there are only a few studies existing on the role of agricultural cooperatives. The trade‐off between economic and environmental sustainability in cooperatives would need to be further investigated.
Cooperatives are enterprises characterised by certain principles, such as cooperation, democratic decision-making, and training that define their entrepreneurial behaviours. Several of these ...cooperative principles appear to exert a positive influence on the performance of these firms and on the three dimensions that define the entrepreneurial orientation of companies: proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking. This study builds a theoretical model that relates cooperative principles, entrepreneurial orientation, and performance from the perspective of corporate governance and human resource management practices, in order to study the links that may exist between these elements. Using data from a survey on 155 worker cooperatives in the Basque Country (Spain) and applying the partial least squares technique, we find that cooperative principles positively affect the performance of cooperatives, both directly and via entrepreneurial orientation.
•Cooperative-affiliated households use more fertilizer and hybrid seeds, and achieve higher yields, even when controlling for a nationwide input support program.•Across all selected productivity and ...input variables we find greater average treatment effects from cooperative membership than FISP participation.•Cooperative-affiliated households have more assets, more land, and higher yields than households without cooperative membership.•Zambian agricultural cooperatives most often provide collective benefits by decreasing transportation costs.•Poor households that are unable to join cooperatives miss out on direct benefits from subsidized inputs and benefits through collective action.
Policymakers in Southern Africa have long viewed agricultural cooperatives as a way to reach rural households more easily, but because not all rural households can afford to join cooperatives, this raises questions about membership inclusivity and whether cooperatives advantage some smallholders over others. Agricultural cooperatives can serve as an institutional vehicle for policymakers to deliver direct benefits to smallholder farmers in the form of subsidized agricultural inputs, usually improved seed varieties and fertilizers. They can also serve as platforms for collective action through which smallholders can reduce transportation and transaction costs or disperse the costs of marketing. In Zambia farmers are required to join a cooperative to qualify for seed and fertilizer support through the national Farmer Input Support Program (FISP), which is a structural incentive for cooperative membership and makes it complicated to determine if cooperative membership increases use of inputs and yields on its own. Using the Inverse Probability Weight Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) technique, we find Zambian smallholders participating in cooperatives achieve significantly higher maize yields and use significantly more hybrid-maize seed and fertilizers, even when controlling for FISP eligibility. Furthermore, across all selected productivity and input variables we find greater average treatment effects from cooperative membership than FISP participation. Cooperative membership is also associated with more assets, more land, and higher maize yields, which suggests that the poorest rural households are often not cooperative members. Cooperatives can be a powerful poverty policy tool to deliver direct benefits to small farmers, but not including the poorest households likely widens the rural poverty gap, both in terms of limited direct benefits of input support programs and in terms of farmers missing out on cooperative-specific benefits.
ABSTRACT
Member heterogeneity is often seen as a disadvantage of cooperatives. Though, a comprehensive understanding of member heterogeneity, its dimensions and impacts on member interests, ...organizations and their performance is still missing. The following literature review is intended to summarize the existing literature on member heterogeneity with a focus on agricultural cooperatives in order to provide further areas of research. Different dimensions of heterogeneity are identified and ways of measuring their impact on cooperative organization are proposed.
•This study combines SFA approach with an ESR model to assess the impact of cooperative membership on rice TFP.•Cooperative membership has positive impacts on rice TFP, TFP growth and its ...components.•The impacts are highly heterogeneous across regions, farm scales and mechanization levels.•The main impact channels include mechanical cultivation, high-quality seeds and technical training.•Cooperatives should be tailored to meet specific needs of rice producers in a specific region.
Productivity growth is essential for food security and sustainable development of agriculture. Since rice is a major staple food in China, understanding factors affecting the performance of rice total factor productivity (TFP) is of great importance for China’s future food security. Despite the growing importance of agricultural TFP, rigorous evidence-based studies on the impacts of cooperative membership on agricultural TFP, especially rice TFP, are scant, hindering the understanding about the potential contribution of agricultural cooperatives to TFP growth. This study examines the impacts of cooperative membership on rice productivity in China by using country-representative survey data from 2014 to 2018. An endogenous switching regression model is employed to account for selection bias. The empirical results show that cooperative membership has a positive and significant impact not only on rice TFP but also on TFP change, technical change and technical efficiency change. The results are robust to alternative choice of instrument variables. The effects of cooperatives on rice productivity are highly heterogeneous with regard to regions, farm scales and mechanization levels. Rice TFP gains through cooperatives are larger for producers in the eastern and central regions, while the effect on TFP growth is the highest in the western region. Regarding farm scales, cooperative membership has a positive and significant impact on rice TFP for small and medium farms but not for large farms. Moreover, cooperatives help improve rice productivity for provinces with low mechanization level of producers. This study further explores the underlying channels through which cooperative membership impacts rice productivity, and identifies that mechanical cultivation, high-quality inputs and technical training appear to be the main channels.
ABSTRACT
The empirical literature on farmer cooperatives is now fast emerging and developing in the areas of performance, ownership and governance, finance, and member attitude. We discuss 56 ...peer‐reviewed publications to illustrate the main findings and conclusions while outlining challenges and opportunities for future research. Generally, cooperative membership is found to positively impact price, yield, input adoption, income, and other indicators of member performance, yet there is growing evidence of an uneven distribution of benefits for small and large producers. In terms of structure, evidence of a causal relationship of ownership and governance to performance has been elusive, yet there are now many findings of inherent equity and long‐term debt constraints, often in the context of consolidation to drive scale and scope economies. Further inefficiency is observed to be driven by increased heterogeneity in member attitudes and objectives, in particular in terms of commitment and participation. Thus, overall, empirical work portrays farmer cooperatives as flawed and complex business organizations which nonetheless have a strong positive impact on its members. While applied research may progress in various directions, a general improvement in empirical methodologies is needed to allow robust analysis of mixed objectives in dynamic environments.
All agri‐food cooperatives share common interests, irrespective of their geographical borders, which should encourage them to undertake inter‐cooperation processes as well as to set up transnational ...cooperatives. This paper has two objectives. The first is to analyze Spanish and Portuguese cooperative regulations and the Statute for a European Cooperative Society to define how to embark on these processes in the two countries while also pinpointing the conflicts that may arise from the different regulations. Secondly, it seeks to ascertain which Spanish and Portuguese cooperatives have had experience in this field and to characterize them through a multiple‐case study, including the rationale for the processes, the advantages and the constraints. The results have revealed five cross‐border cooperation categories and show that the Statute for a European Cooperative Society has not had the expected success at the EU level, due to its complexity. However, in general, the lack of expected cross‐border cooperative experiences is not due to legal, language or management issues. It is for different reasons. Firstly, cooperatives think that they can achieve the same objectives through inter‐cooperative agreements. Secondly, government policies protect the regional nature of their cooperatives, rather than encouraging them to expand their business and therefore their capacity to respond to current challenges.
This article investigates determinants and impacts of cooperative organization, using the example of smallholder banana farmers in Kenya. Farmer groups are inclusive of the poor, although wealthier ...households are more likely to join. Employing propensity score matching, we find positive income effects for active group members. Yet price advantages of collective marketing are small, and high-value market potentials have not yet been tapped. Beyond prices, farmer groups function as important catalysts for innovation adoption through promoting efficient information flows. We discuss the conditions under which collective action is useful, and through what mechanisms the potential benefits emerge. Copyright Elsevier Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Using household survey data from Ethiopia, this paper evaluates the impact of agricultural cooperatives on smallholders’ technical efficiency. We used propensity score matching to compare ...the average difference in technical efficiency between cooperative member farmers and similar independent farmers. The results show that agricultural cooperatives are effective in providing support services that significantly contribute to members’ technical efficiency. These results are found to be insensitive to hidden bias and consistent with the idea that agricultural cooperatives enhance members’ efficiency by easing access to productive inputs and facilitating extension linkages. According to the findings, increased participation in agricultural cooperatives should further enhance efficiency gains among smallholder farmers.
Bedeutung von Agrargenossenschaften für die technische Effizienz von Kleinbauern: Empirischer Befund aus Äthiopien
Unter Verwendung von Haushaltserhebungsdaten aus Äthiopien wird in diesem Beitrag die Wirkung von Agrargenossenschaften auf die technische Effizienz von Kleinbauern evaluiert. Wir wenden das Propensity‐Score‐Matching‐Verfahren an, um die durchschnittliche Differenz der technischen Effizienz zwischen Bauern, die Mitglied in einer Genossenschaft sind, und unabhängigen Kleinbauern zu vergleichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Agrargenossenschaften effektiv sind bezüglich der Bereitstellung von Unterstützungsdiensten, die signifikant zur technischen Effizienz der Mitglieder beitragen. Es lässt sich feststellen, dass diese Ergebnisse resistent gegenüber versteckten Verzerrungen sind und konform gehen mit der Vorstellung, dass Agrargenossenschaften die Effizienz der Mitglieder steigern, indem sie den Zugang zu produktiven Inputs erleichtern und der Geschäftserweiterung dienliche Verbindungen ermöglichen. Diesen Ergebnissen zufolge sollte eine stärkere Beteiligung an Agrargenossenschaften die Effizienzgewinne von Kleinbauern weiter steigern.
Impacto de las cooperativas agrícolas sobre la eficacia técnica de las pequeñas explotaciones: análisis empírico en Etiopía
A partir de los datos obtenidos de encuestas a los hogares en Etiopía, este artículo evalúa el impacto de las cooperativas agrícolas sobre la eficacia técnica de las pequeñas explotaciones. Los autores utilizan el método denominado propensity score matching para comparar la diferencia media de eficacia técnica entre los miembros de las cooperativas agrícolas y los agricultores independientes. Los resultados muestran que las cooperativas agrícolas son eficaces para proveer servicios de apoyo que contribuyen significativamente a la eficacia técnica de sus miembros. Estos resultados son insensibles a los sesgos existentes y confirman la idea de que las cooperativas agrícolas incrementan la eficacia de sus miembros facilitándoles el acceso a los inputs productivos y a contactos comerciales. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que intensificar la participación en las cooperativas agrícolas acrecientan las ganancias de eficacia en los pequeños agricultores.
Impact des coopératives agricoles sur l'efficacité technique des petits exploitants: Analyse empirique en Ethiopie
A partir de données d'enquêtes de ménages en Ethiopie, cet article évalue l'impact des coopératives agricoles sur l'efficacité technique des petits exploitants. Les auteurs utilisent la méthode dite propensity score matching pour comparer la différence moyenne d'efficacité technique entre membres de coopératives agricoles et fermiers indépendants. Les résultats montrent que les coopératives agricoles sont efficaces pour fournir des services de support qui contribuent significativement à l'efficacité technique de leurs membres. Ces résultats sont insensibles à des biais cachés et confirment l'idée que les coopératives agricoles augmentent l'efficacité des membres en facilitant l'accès à des inputs productifs et les liaisons à distance. Les résultats indiquent qu'intensifier la participation dans les coopératives agricoles accroitrait les gains d'efficacité des petits agriculteurs.
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