The Role of Management Behavior in Agricultural Cooperatives

Mintzburg’s managerial working role model is used to explore the ways roles and behavior of the general manager of a user-oriented firm differ from those of the manager of an investor-owned firm (IOF). It is argued that, in the roles of conflict resolution, resource allocation, information spokesperson, and leadership, the challenges of a user-oriented manager are not only significantly different but often more difficult. It is concluded that managers comfortable with complexity; technical-operation, people-oriented resource allocation; multi-stakeholder communication; and with strong coalition- building skills are most successful in user-oriented organizations.Agribusiness,

AGRIBUSINESS IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: CHALLENGES FOR AN EVOLVING PROFESSION

Agribusiness,

The Internal Organization of the Cooperative Firm: An Extension of a New Institutional Digest

Agribusiness,

Lessons from Community Entrepreneurship: The Concept of Spawning

Capital-constrained cooperatives are being challenged by producer-members to provide vertical integration opportunities. We find evidence producer groups are utilizing an investment strategy described as spawning. Producer-investors familiar with a particular organizational form and who have developed joint investment networks were more apt to invest in newly spawned ventures.Spawning, Collective Entrepreneurship, Cooperative Development, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

A Primer On Collective Entrepreneurship: A Preliminary Taxonomy

We document an increasing prevalence of the term ―collective entrepreneurship‖ in scholarly research. By examining the context in which the term is utilized, we present a framework through which to understand motivations for research in collective entrepreneurship and the variety of entrepreneurial endeavors described as collective entrepreneurship. We identify five primary motivations for research: advancement of theory, intra-organizational efficiency, inter-organizational gains, economic growth and development, and socio-political change. We find preliminary evidence collective entrepreneurs may be able to generate rents inaccessible to the sole entrepreneur. In addition, we propose mechanisms which foster entrepreneurship may differ for sole and collective entrepreneurs.International Relations/Trade,

TESTING FOR THE PRESENCE OF FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS IN U.S.

It is commonly argued in the literature that agricultural cooperatives are financially constrained because they are unable to acquire sufficient risk capital to invest in productive assets. This study examines whether agricultural cooperatives' investment is constrained by estimating neoclassical and cash flow augmented Q investment models. Panel data regression results suggest that cooperative physical capital investment responds positively and significantly to both the marginal profitability of capital and cash flow. Results also indicate that all cooperative sub-samples face binding financial constraints when making investment decisions, but some cooperatives appear to be less financially constrained than others. The empirical analysis of the cooperative financial constraint hypothesis suggests that eliminating restrictions on residual claims might be a necessary condition for the attenuation of capital constraints in agricultural cooperatives.Agribusiness,

Towards a Measurement of Free Riding within Private Collective Action Organizations

The objective of this study is to determine if there is a dominant free riding activity which can be identified and used as the basis for measuring free riding, or if multiple free riding actions and/or behaviors coexist within large collective action organizations. The study uses a confirmatory factor analysis model to evaluate member level survey data from a large agricultural marketing cooperative.Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

The Emergence of Non-Traditional Cooperative Structures: Public and Private Policy Issues

This paper examines new agricultural cooperative organizational models from an ownership rights perspective. We argue that new cooperative organizational models differ in the way ownership rights are assigned to the economic agents tied contractually to the firm � members, patrons, and investors. The paper proposes a typology of discrete organizational models, in which the traditional cooperative structure and the investor-oriented firm are characterized as polar forms. Five non-traditional models are described and analyzed with implications to both private and public policy.agricultural cooperatives, cooperative finance, ownership structure, property rights., Agribusiness,

New Producer Strategies: The Emergence of Patron-Driven Entrepreneurship

Abstract—Existing research treats the cooperative structure as relatively homogeneous. The proposed paper argues that all cooperatives are not created equal – and consideration of organizational structure is critical when analyzing the economic impact of cooperation. In recent empirical work, we observe cooperatives forming as single- or multi-purpose; generating equity capital passively, quasi-passively, or proactively; vertically integrating in a centralized, federated, or a hybrid fashion; governing through fixed or proportional control rights; and instituting open, closed or class-varying membership criteria. The emergence of multiple-level rent-seeking cooperatives challenges our traditional rent dispersion models of collective action. We call these multi-level, patron, rent-seeking entities a form of collective entrepreneurship. This paper develops a set of criteria enabling us to distinguish between traditional forms of cooperation and collective entrepreneurship. We employ these characteristics to analyze and contrast these two extreme forms of collective action. We propose a continuum from single-level rent seeking, traditional, patron, user-driven cooperative forms; through forms of hybrids and macrohierarchies; to multiple-level rent seeking, patron, user-investor-driven collective entrepreneurship.Collective entrepreneurship, Agribusiness, Property Rights, Agribusiness,

Consumer co-ops : orienting new members (1993)

"Reviewed October 1993."Every cooperative, small or large, will bring in new members at one time or another. The cooperative needs to orient these new members to the goals and nature of the cooperative, and their rights and responsibilities as members. Equally important, the cooperative needs to solicit from the new members their interests, purposes, needs and special skills