Cooperative Organizational Strategies: A Neo-Institutional Digest

This paper describes the neo-institutional approaches of transaction cost economics, agency theory, and property rights analysis and summarizes efforts by economists to apply these concepts to cooperatives. Several problems intrinsic to the cooperative organizational form and its property rights structure are reviewed. These problems have been hypothesized to affect the comparative economic efficiency of cooperative firms and have led to the development of life cycle models seeking to explain the formation, growth, and eventual decline of cooperatives as markets evolve. In this context, statistical analyses of the comparative efficiency of cooperatives and ex post studies of cooperative conversions are surveyed.Agribusiness,

A Comparative Financial Ratio Analysis of U.S. Farmer Cooperatives Using Nonparametric Statistics

A comparative ratio analysis using nonparametric statistical methods provides no evidence to support the hypothesis that U.S. farmer cooperatives generally are financially weaker than other firms. Although some cooperative groups had lower current ratios than industry standards, most of these groups consisted of marketing associations for which differences may be explained largely by the unique business relationships between the associations and their patrons. Comparisons of debt/equity ratios indicate that, except for regional grain and farm supply associations, cooperatives generally are less leveraged than other firms. The overall financial strength of cooperatives appears better than during the early 1980s.Agribusiness,

Should I make or should I buy? Innovation strategies and governance structures in the Italian food sector

This paper analyses the “make or buy” decision of food firms applied to innovation strategy using 389 Italian food firms data from the Unicredit 2007 database. We develop a set of hypothesis from three theoretical perspectives such as transaction cost economics, strategic management and resource-based view. Our paper aims at highlight whether or not different firm’s features can be linked to the decision to make or buy. We found out that these two decisions are positively interlinked. Moreover we also found out that it is difficult to indicate a clear-cut behaviour for the Italian food firms if we refer to making or buying decisions. We discuss these results and use them to bring some interesting outcomes to discuss managerial implications and/or policy interventions in this highly strategic domain

OPTIMAL STRATEGIES OF MARKETING COOPERATIVES REGARDING NONMEMBER BUSINESS

This paper analyzes the pricing and output decisions of a cooperative that purchases and processes an agricultural raw product from both member and nonmember producers. Because of the complexity of the optimality conditions, simulation analysis is used to demonstrate solutions for various scenarios under monopsony market structure.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

BACKWARD INTEGRATION BY COOPERATIVES IN IMPERFECTLY COMPETITIVE AGRICULTURAL RAW PRODUCT MARKETS

This paper models backward integration by processing cooperatives into raw product production. Our analysis demonstrates that a cooperative's incentive to acquire raw product production capacity depends on its ability to restrict member production to optimal levels and the relationship between members and nonmembers in the raw product market.Agribusiness, Marketing,

A static cost analysis for a higher-order language

We develop a static complexity analysis for a higher-order functional language with structural list recursion. The complexity of an expression is a pair consisting of a cost and a potential. The former is defined to be the size of the expression's evaluation derivation in a standard big-step operational semantics. The latter is a measure of the "future" cost of using the value of that expression. A translation function tr maps target expressions to complexities. Our main result is the following Soundness Theorem: If t is a term in the target language, then the cost component of tr(t) is an upper bound on the cost of evaluating t. The proof of the Soundness Theorem is formalized in Coq, providing certified upper bounds on the cost of any expression in the target language.Comment: Final versio

Evaluating the Competitive Yardstick Effect of Cooperatives on Imperfect Markets: A Simulation Analysis

Agribusiness,

Microbial load monitor

Attempts are made to provide a total design of a Microbial Load Monitor (MLM) system flight engineering model. Activities include assembly and testing of Sample Receiving and Card Loading Devices (SRCLDs), operator related software, and testing of biological samples in the MLM. Progress was made in assembling SRCLDs with minimal leaks and which operate reliably in the Sample Loading System. Seven operator commands are used to control various aspects of the MLM such as calibrating and reading the incubating reading head, setting the clock and reading time, and status of Card. Testing of the instrument, both in hardware and biologically, was performed. Hardware testing concentrated on SRCLDs. Biological testing covered 66 clinical and seeded samples. Tentative thresholds were set and media performance listed

Microbial Load Monitor

The Microbial Load Monitor (MLM) is an automated and computerized system for detection and identification of microorganisms. Additionally, the system is designed to enumerate and provide antimicrobic susceptibility profiles for medically significant bacteria. The system is designed to accomplish these tasks in a time of 13 hours or less versus the traditional time of 24 hours for negatives and 72 hours or more for positives usually required for standard microbiological analysis. The MLM concept differs from other methods of microbial detection in that the system is designed to accept raw untreated clinical samples and to selectively identify each group or species that may be present in a polymicrobic sample