Member Commitment in Agricultural Cooperatives : How do Innovation, Economic Participation and Governance Involvement Interlock ?

Abstract

Member commitment falls down in large agricultural cooperatives. We explore how economic participation, governance involvement interact to strengthen or weaken member commitment. We build a typology of members based on a sample of 3330 active members belonging to a French multipurpose cooperative. Members are subdivided into six groups. Economic involvement appears to be the main differentiating factor, followed by governance participation. Other determinants affect member commitment such as the adoption of new agricultural practices, the sales that members generate with the cooperative, the farm multi-output strategy, and the distance to the cooperative headquarters