TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of member size and external incentives (food safety certification and target market) on cooperative’s product quality, using data collected from 135 apple producing cooperatives in China. Design/methodology/approach– Given that different indicator variables were used to measure apple quality, the authors employed a principle component analysis method to reduce the measurement dimension. An ordinary least square regression was employed to analyse the effects of member size and selective incentives of agricultural cooperatives on product quality. Findings– The empirical results show that member size and cooperative’s product quality bear an inverse “U-shape” relationship, and food safety certification and target market variables tend to positively and significantly influence cooperative’s product quality. In particular, the cooperatives with more food safety certificates and targeting supermarkets and export enterprises are more likely to supply high-quality products. Originality/value– This study provides the first attempt to measure apple quality and investigate the factors that influence cooperative’s product quality.
VL  - 118
IS  - 4
SN  - 0007-070X
DO  - 10.1108/BFJ-11-2015-0456
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2015-0456
AU  - Cai Rong
AU  - Ma Wanglin
AU  - Su Ye
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 2016/01/01
TI  - Effects of member size and selective incentives of agricultural cooperatives on product quality
T2  - British Food Journal
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 858
EP  - 870
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -