Cooperatives for demand side management

We propose a new scheme for efficient demand side management for the Smart Grid. Specifically, we envisage and promote the formation of cooperatives of medium-large consumers and equip them (via our proposed mechanisms) with the capability of regularly participating in the existing electricity markets by providing electricity demand reduction services to the Grid. Based on mechanism design principles, we develop a model for such cooperatives by designing methods for estimating suitable reduction amounts, placing bids in the market and redistributing the obtained revenue amongst the member agents. Our mechanism is such that the member agents have no incentive to show artificial reductions with the aim of increasing their revenue

Farmer cooperatives in the food economy of Western Europe: an analysis from the Marketing point of view

This paper is concerned with an analysis of farmer cooperatives in Western Europe from the marketing point of view. The analysis is restricted to marketing and processing cooperatives. First some basic characteristics of farmer cooperatives are discussed from a systems point of view. Afterwards changes in the environment of farmer cooperatives are reviewed. Their impact on farmer cooperatives is analysed. Finally some hypotheses on future developments of West European cooperatives are presented. Our analysis suggests that West European cooperatives will become increasingly hybrid systems, being democratic in the general policy stage and hierarchical in the executive stag

Why Social Enterprises Are Asking to Be Multi-stakeholder and Deliberative: An Explanation around the Costs of Exclusion.

The study of multi-stakeholdership (and multi-stakeholder social enterprises in particular) is only at the start. Entrepreneurial choices which have emerged spontaneously, as well as the first legal frameworks approved in this direction, lack an adequate theoretical support. The debate itself is underdeveloped, as the existing understanding of organisations and their aims resist an inclusive, public interest view of enterprise. Our contribution aims at enriching the thin theoretical reflections on multi-stakeholdership, in a context where they are already established, i.e. that of social and personal services. The aim is to provide an economic justification on why the governance structure and decision-making praxis of the firm needs to account for multiple stakeholders. In particular with our analysis we want: a) to consider production and the role of firms in the context of the “public interest” which may or may not coincide with the non-profit objective; b) to ground the explanation of firm governance and processes upon the nature of production and the interconnections between demand and supply side; c) to explain that the costs associated with multi-stakeholder governance and deliberation in decision-making can increase internal efficiency and be “productive” since they lower internal costs and utilise resources that otherwise would go astray. The key insight of this work is that, differently from major interpretations, property costs should be compared with a more comprehensive range of costs, such as the social costs that emerge when the supply of social and personal services is insufficient or when the identification of aims and means is not shared amongst stakeholders. Our model highlights that when social costs derived from exclusion are high, even an enterprise with costly decisional processes, such as the multistakeholder, can be the most efficient solution amongst other possible alternatives

Cooperative Longevity and Sustainable Development in a Family Farming System

This paper focuses on small holding, family farming in Southeast Spain where agricultural economic activity is predominantly organized around cooperative business models. A variety of diverse studies on the Almería agricultural and credit cooperative sector and the exploration of social-economic and eco-social indicators, in addition to economic-market indicators are presented. Each correspond to a cooperative “logic” that spans theoretical perspectives from the dominant economic-market model, new institutionalism, and an eco-social approach, echoing theories on collective coordination governance, and the avoidance of the “tragedy of the commons”. The latter is of particular importance given environmental challenges and scarce resources for agricultural activity. The cooperatives in Almería have increasingly relied on collective collaboration and coordination in order to meet social-economic and social-ecological challenges, transforming their role from that founded on a market dominant logic to that of cooperation as a coordination mechanism based on the mutual benefit of the community and environment. In turn, their ability to meet a wide range of needs and challenges of members and the community leads to their longevity. Cooperatives are able to act as both a market and non-market coordination mechanism, balancing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions, such that neither market nor non-market logics are dominant or exclusive

Ten Conversations about Identity Preservation: Implications for Cooperatives

Motivation: While it appears the modern economy demands ever increasing amounts of differentiation, opportunities for grain producers to create and capture significant new sources of value remains elusive. Opportunities appear to loom large to help remove risk and improve quality in the grain supply chain through preservation of product identity, producers, producer groups, and cooperatives are frustrated at the low level of value available to them from IP demand. Why do premiums remain low? And, what is the role of group action in these new differentiated markets? Objectives: This research report helps to explain this apparent paradox underlying the economics of the value proposition for IP grains. Methodology: Needs assessments were conducted on procurement executives using a semi-structured instrument. Results: The study demonstrates that understanding identity preservation business opportunities requires an understanding of the buy-side proposition. Respondents described how they balance the risk mitigation and market uplift features of a supply offering with the risks of narrowing the supply base. A model of the buyer's calculus is constructed. The results show how for producers and producer groups to drive value up the chain they need to shift away from solely a new product focus. Instead attention needs to be directed towards technologies, delivery systems, and organizational models that when bundled with new products make end-users more competitive. A second insight was the limited role of group action in meeting end-user needs. Where value markets existed, internalized groups rather than "arm's length" group transactions were the norm. Plan for Discussion: The cooperative movement was grounded in group action giving individual producers power in the market. The motivation to unite was very clear. In the post-industrial agrifood system though, why do buyers want to purchase from a group? What is the role of the group, from a buy-side perspective, in the modern economy? How should effective groups be structured? Key Words: identity preservation, supply chain management, value creation, group actionidentity preservation, supply chain management, value creation, group action, Agribusiness,

On the Emergence of Growers' Associations

Cooperatives in agricultural and horticultural markets have faced problems in responding to the increasing differentiation in demand as well as supply. One response is the emergence of growers' associations. They are not vertically integrated forward into a processor/retailer stage of production like cooperatives. This gives processors/retailers the freedom to invest in the direction they most like, given the increasing differentiation in demand. Growers' associations face on the supply side a trade off between self-selection and countervailing power regarding the increasing differentiation in supply. Heterogeneous growers' associations frustrate high quality growers due to the policy of uniform treatment of members, but they are strong in terms of countervailing power of the growers collectively. The opposite holds for homogeneous growers' associations.self-selection;Growers' association;incomplete contracting;market power

An Exchange Mechanism to Coordinate Flexibility in Residential Energy Cooperatives

Energy cooperatives (ECs) such as residential and industrial microgrids have the potential to mitigate increasing fluctuations in renewable electricity generation, but only if their joint response is coordinated. However, the coordination and control of independently operated flexible resources (e.g., storage, demand response) imposes critical challenges arising from the heterogeneity of the resources, conflict of interests, and impact on the grid. Correspondingly, overcoming these challenges with a general and fair yet efficient exchange mechanism that coordinates these distributed resources will accommodate renewable fluctuations on a local level, thereby supporting the energy transition. In this paper, we introduce such an exchange mechanism. It incorporates a payment structure that encourages prosumers to participate in the exchange by increasing their utility above baseline alternatives. The allocation from the proposed mechanism increases the system efficiency (utilitarian social welfare) and distributes profits more fairly (measured by Nash social welfare) than individual flexibility activation. A case study analyzing the mechanism performance and resulting payments in numerical experiments over real demand and generation profiles of the Pecan Street dataset elucidates the efficacy to promote cooperation between co-located flexibilities in residential cooperatives through local exchange.Comment: Accepted in IEEE ICIT 201

Beyond knowledge brokerage: an exploratory study of innovation intermediaries in an evolving smallholder agricultural system in Kenya

The recognition that innovation occurs in networks of heterogeneous actors and requires broad systemic support beyond knowledge brokering has resulted in a changing landscape of the intermediary domain in an increasingly market-driven agricultural sector in developing countries. This paper presents findings of an explorative case study that looked at 22 organisations identified as fulfilling an intermediary role in the Kenyan agricultural sector. The results show that these organisations fulfill functions that are not limited to distribution of knowledge and putting it into use. The functions also include fostering integration and interaction among the diverse actors engaged in innovation networks and working on technological, organisational and institutional innovation. Further, the study identified various organisational arrangements of innovation intermediaries with some organisations fulfilling a specialised innovation brokering role, even as other intermediaries take on brokering as a side activity, while still substantively contributing to the innovation process. Based on these findings we identify a typology of 4 innovation intermediation arrangements, including technology brokers, systemic brokers, enterprise development support and input access support. The results indicate that innovation brokering is a pervasive task in supporting innovation and will require policy support to embed it in innovation support arrangements. The paper is not normative about these arrangements