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1 – 10 of over 32000Yu Liu and Houjian Li
The purpose of this paper, based on first-hand data from 255 chairmen of planting cooperatives in Sichuan province, is threefold: to understand their social network heterogeneity;…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper, based on first-hand data from 255 chairmen of planting cooperatives in Sichuan province, is threefold: to understand their social network heterogeneity; to understand the significance for members of marketing innovation in farmers' cooperatives and to understand the effects of chairmen's social network heterogeneity on cooperative marketing innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research employs an empirical survey of the chairmen of planting cooperatives in rural Sichuan province. The researchers use the ordinary least squares method to conduct regression on the data and the generalized linear model to process the data and avoid errors in the model setting. In the study, the following two hypotheses are examined: (1) The heterogeneity of chairmen's social networks has positive effects on cooperative marketing innovation; (2) The effects of heterogeneous external and internal social networks on cooperative marketing innovation are different.
Findings
The results show that both external and internal social network heterogeneity has positive effects on cooperative marketing innovation, and the effects of internal heterogeneity are greater than that of external heterogeneity.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to improving the income of farmers, the innovation of farmers' cooperatives and the development of agriculture in China. It provides a new way of managing and serving members to enable the long-term sustainable development of farmers' cooperatives.
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Explores the role of boards and co‐operatives in the total marketing system and concludes they should be left to compete openly with the private sector. Examines this with regard…
Abstract
Explores the role of boards and co‐operatives in the total marketing system and concludes they should be left to compete openly with the private sector. Examines this with regard to the open market in Africa and how it is still, to some extent, a social institution. States that there are three basic categories of tribal groupings in North America, Africa and the South Pacific, these are: individualist; competitive; and co‐operative, these are discussed and explained in detail. Concludes that the study has not questioned the existence of boards and co‐operatives, it has set out their roles in and contributions to, the marketing system, suggesting ways in which both can be made more effective.
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Jasper Grashuis and Keri Jacobs
The objective of the study is to explore explanations for the capital structure compositions of farmer cooperatives, which have a unique equity structure with allocated equity as…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the study is to explore explanations for the capital structure compositions of farmer cooperatives, which have a unique equity structure with allocated equity as well as unallocated equity.
Design/methodology/approach
Data came from a panel of US grain marketing and input supply cooperatives for the 2010–2020 period. The study is concerned with the proportions of debt, allocated equity and unallocated equity, which requires the application of a fractional multinomial panel model to ensure predictions fall within the observed data range (i.e. 0–1).
Findings
Larger cooperatives have relatively high debt proportions. Diversification of the product portfolio has a positive effect on the debt proportion. Profitability is associated with higher debt proportions in input supply cooperatives and higher allocated equity proportions in grain marketing cooperatives. Over time, the proportion of unallocated equity increased. Overall, some results differ across grain marketing and input supply cooperatives.
Practical implications
Increasing proportions of unallocated equity warrant a debate about the future value of ownership and governance by members of farmer cooperatives.
Originality/value
Previous empirical investigations of the capital structure compositions of cooperatives lacked a distinction between allocated and unallocated equity. Our results show that the proportions of the two equity accounts respond differently to given predictors. Furthermore, much of the prior empirical literature fails to separate cooperatives on the basis of economic activities (i.e. marketing, supply and mixed).
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Solomon Bizuayehu Wassie, Hitoshi Kusakari and Sumimoto Masahiro
Using a recent rural farm household survey, the purpose of this paper is to investigate inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia.
Abstract
Purpose
Using a recent rural farm household survey, the purpose of this paper is to investigate inclusiveness and effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives in Ethiopia.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a logit model to examine inclusiveness and an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives.
Findings
The results show that agricultural cooperatives are less inclusive of land-poor and illiterate households. On the other hand, the estimated results indicate that cooperatives effectively improved agricultural performance and welfare of its member households – i.e. membership in cooperatives increases yield and income by 1.37 quintal/hectare and 1,804 birr, respectively. Moreover, the result shows that marketing cooperatives effectively increased marketed surplus of their members by 34 percent.
Research limitations/implications
The study has important implications regarding the ways to improve the effectiveness and/or inclusiveness of agricultural cooperatives.
Originality/value
While accounting for the collective behavior of cooperatives, this study uses multiple outcome variables in examining the effectiveness of cooperatives in Ethiopia. Furthermore, this paper employs the ESR model and accounts for potential problems in estimating impact using non-experimental data.
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Jedsadaporn Sathapatyanon, John K.M. Kuwornu, Ganesh Prasad Shivakoti, Peeyush Soni, Anil Kumar Anal and Avishek Datta
The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of rice supply chain in the context of the role of rice farmer organizations and cooperative networks in Thailand.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of rice supply chain in the context of the role of rice farmer organizations and cooperative networks in Thailand.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data were solicited from the cooperatives and members of cooperatives for this study through questionnaire administration. The questionnaire containing a five-point Likert scale was posed to respondents to ascertain their problems before and after joining the network (for cooperative) and after joining the cooperative (for members). This study employed the independent two-sample student t-test (two-tailed) to test for significant difference in the means of scores regarding the problems of cooperatives before and after the cooperative network, and also to test for significant difference in the means of scores of the problems of members of the cooperatives before and after joining the cooperative.
Findings
The study revealed that key production and marketing problems such as increased transaction costs and market uncertainties confronting the cooperative organizations have been diminished as a result of the networks. Key problems of the members of the cooperatives such as exploitation and opportunistic behavior of traders to whom they sell their products have been reduced as a result of joining the cooperatives.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is not without caveat. The governance structures in relation to leadership, financial arrangements and bargaining power balance have not been analyzed in this study and these are avenues for further research.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that examined the combined roles of farmer organizations and cooperative networks in developing the rice supply chain in Thailand.
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Biao Zhang, Zetian Fu, Jieqiong Wang, Xiaolin Tang, Yousen Zhao and Lingxian Zhang
Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the farmers’ selection behavior of vegetable marketing channels, and to determine the key factors which affected farmer’ decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 191 valid questionnaires were collected from 50 villages in seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2015, yielding a response rate of 86.8 percent. The multinomial logit model was used for analysis in this study.
Findings
The results revealed that the farmers mainly selected farmers’ market, cooperative, and wholesaler to sell their vegetables, which comprised 96.57 percent of total vegetable sales. Estimation results showed that cooperative, vegetable acreage, price satisfaction, and slow sales were most important factors which influence positively the probability of opting to sell vegetables at a cooperative rather than at the farmer’s market. For wholesalers, gender of the household head and cooperative had most significantly negative effect, and age had a positive impact on farmer’s choice of market channels.
Originality/value
The results and implications obtained in the present study could help policymakers to establish a scientific-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the circulation of vegetables in Beijing and guarantee their income in vegetable supply chain. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.
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Aaron Grau, Heinrich Hockmann and Inna Levkovych
The business environment of the EU dairy sector has altered drastically because of changes in EU agricultural and trade policy, consumer demand, and innovations since the turn of…
Abstract
Purpose
The business environment of the EU dairy sector has altered drastically because of changes in EU agricultural and trade policy, consumer demand, and innovations since the turn of the millennium. This created new market income opportunities for dairy processors, but also fostered the necessity for investments to access these markets. A literature review sees cooperatives to be disadvantaged at this point, because their organisational structure hinders their access to external financial resources. Confronted with these equity constraints, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how German dairy marketing cooperatives adapted to the new business environment and have been performing from 2000 to 2012.
Design/methodology/approach
An approach combining descriptive data from public sources and financial ratio analysis was used to test hypotheses, derived from Transaction Cost Theory.
Findings
Contrary to assumptions, cooperatives gained market shares on the German dairy market. However, dairy cooperatives managed to overcome the internal equity constraints only partially via mergers, which intensified structural change. Focusing on cost leadership, German cooperatives were not able to successfully diversify their product portfolio and still operate mainly in the fluid, low margins dairy market segments. Frustrated by their diminishing influence on the decision making process in the vastly grown cooperatives, a majority of farmers cancelled their cooperative membership.
Practical implications
Until today an absolute turning point for the cooperative organisational form has not yet occurred, but if cooperatives do not find the means to invest more heavily in the new markets, a slow decline of cooperatives is expected.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the existing literature on marketing cooperatives by providing insights on the performance of cooperatives through combination of from theory derived assumptions with qualitative and quantitative analysis methods.
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Zuhui Huang, Vijay Vyas and Qiao Liang
Agriculture sectors in China and India are going through rapid changes. There is a shift in demand pattern, significant changes in the supply chain, greater competition due to…
Abstract
Purpose
Agriculture sectors in China and India are going through rapid changes. There is a shift in demand pattern, significant changes in the supply chain, greater competition due to opening up of the domestic and external markets and fuller integration with rest of the economy. These developments have impacted traditional agriculture and its institutional underpinning. Latter are being transformed and new institutions are coming into existence. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses the changes in economy and the agricultural sector, explores institutional responses in terms of various producer organizations in the two countries, and examines their adequacy for the coming phase of agricultural development in China and India.
Findings
The co-existence of various farmer organizations will sustain for a long period in both China and India. Overall, they have benefitted agriculture producers, and more particularly the surplus generating farmers. However, the incompatibility between these and the vast and growing small farm sector is not disappearing. Next set of institutional reforms should address this critical question of “reaching the unreached.”
Originality/value
China and India are the world’s two largest countries in terms of population as well as agricultural population. They share a lot of common features. This paper discusses the changes in agricultural sector, explores institutional responses in terms of farmer organizations, and examines their adequacy for the coming phase of agricultural development in China and India, which has never been seen before.
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Since the 1950s, Ocean Spray cranberry growers have typically seen themselves in terms of their membership in the Ocean Spray cooperative rather than as cranberry growers. This…
Abstract
Since the 1950s, Ocean Spray cranberry growers have typically seen themselves in terms of their membership in the Ocean Spray cooperative rather than as cranberry growers. This association with the cooperative is so powerful that both members and independents alike believe that without Ocean Spray, the cranberry industry would not exist as it does today. Yet, as a way to recoup the losses resulting from the recent cranberry glut, some member-growers have proposed selling the cooperative. Although the sale would have generated a large sum of money for them, growers voted overwhelmingly against it. In order to understand why growers identify so closely with the cooperative, this paper intends to demonstrate how Ocean Spray’s influence transcended its role as a marketing cooperative to that of a significant social institution.
Chenchi Zhang, Jieqiong Wang, Biao Zhang, Junqi Ding, Zetian Fu and Lingxian Zhang
The selection of marketing channels by vegetable producers directly affects the income of producers and is important for the maintenance of a stable supply of vegetables and food…
Abstract
Purpose
The selection of marketing channels by vegetable producers directly affects the income of producers and is important for the maintenance of a stable supply of vegetables and food control. The purpose of this paper is threefold: to investigate the cooperative selection of vegetable marketing channels; to identify the factors that influence the selection of marketing channels by professional vegetable cooperatives by comparing emerging and traditional circulation modes; and to solve the problems related to vegetable circulation channels in Beijing.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 187 valid questionnaires were collected from seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2017, with a response rate of 89 percent. Binary logistic regression was used for analysis in this study.
Findings
Results revealed that the cooperatives mainly selected large wholesalers, wholesale markets, supermarkets and electronic commerce as their marketing channels for their vegetables. Estimation results showed that among the 18 influencing factors in the four categories, the educational level of the person in charge and some other factors significantly influence the selection of these four distribution channels by the cooperatives.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the lack of time and energy, this paper does not analyze the factors influencing a cooperative’s choice of different e-commerce platforms. If this problem can be solved, it will definitely promote the development of e-commerce in rural areas.
Originality/value
The results obtained in the present study and their implications could help policy makers establish a science-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the new circulation modes of vegetables in Beijing and ensure their income in the vegetable supply chain. This study suggests methods to improve the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.
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