In their substantive operations, farmer cooperatives have faced persistent conflicts between the dual institutional logics of member mutual aid and market profitability, resulting in pronounced governance dilemmas. Drawing on typical cases of cooperatives establishing enterprises released by China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, this study adopts an institutional logic perspective and integrates organizational ambidexterity theory with resource orchestration theory. Through a multi-case replication logic and cross-case comparative analysis, it systematically investigates the mechanisms and processes through which cooperatives implement “separation of cooperative and enterprise” (SCE) governance. The findings reveal that: Cooperatives establish a structural ambidexterity architecture of “cooperative-front, enterprise-back” by setting up companies, thereby achieving decoupling and strategic recoupling of community logic and market logic at the organizational level. Resource orchestration serves as the critical mediating process linking structure and performance, wherein cooperatives dynamically integrate heterogeneous resources through sequential resource structuring, bundling, and leveraging. Driven by variations in internal and external resource endowments, cooperatives evolve into three governance models, endogenous incubation, external leverage, and network embedding, which exhibit marked differences in applicable conditions and operational effectiveness. This study provides a processual theoretical explanation for understanding cooperative governance innovation and offers practical references for cooperatives pursuing high-quality development amidst marketization.
Cooperative platforms are confronted with their dual nature of ensuring both a political mission and economic viability. Through a case study of the CoopCycle platform and federation, we examine the evolution of CoopCycle and how it deals with the tensions associated with its dual nature over time. By examining the economic and political development of CoopCycle from a temporal perspective, our study provides insights that advance and complement ongoing work on platform cooperatives. First, it shows how tensions can be managed differently at different stages of a cooperative's lifecycle. Second, by analyzing how CoopCycle builds a sustainable business model without losing sight of its mission statement, we contribute to the dearth of studies examining the economic survival of platform cooperatives. Overall, our study shows that balancing tensions in platform cooperatives is probably not immediately rewarding, but that temporary compromises in the short-term can lead to long-term synchronization of political and economic goals.
Cooperatives are organizations that combine business, nonprofit, and democratic logics to pursue economic and social goals, guided by shared principles and values oriented toward member and community well-being. While these characteristics define what cooperatives are designed to be, they do not fully explain what constitutes cooperative identity in practice. Research on cooperative identity has tended to privilege internal principles, downplaying how identity is formed in interaction with external actors, elements, and influences. We advocate for an integrated perspective that links organizational theory with contextual and regional embeddedness to explain how cooperative identity is shaped in and by territorial business ecosystems. Drawing on a qualitative research design, we analyze interviews with eight cooperatives and archival materials representing the Champagne-Ardenne appellation, the designation of origin for Champagne. We identify two families of identity-shaping elements: strategic-operational elements and context-environmental elements. Together, these elements enact a cooperative identity that is proactive, place-based, and collectively disciplined. We show how the territorial business ecosystem underpins sustainable development at the organizational, brand, and product levels and co-produces cooperative identity beyond the boundaries of any single firm. We call for cooperative scholars to pay attention to contextually embedded factors to advance our understanding of identity dynamics in cooperative business.
This scoping review explores the process of building new agricultural cooperatives, a challenging process with a high failure risk. Despite the prevalence of cooperatives, the formation process through which they come into being remains poorly understood. Through a systematic scoping approach, this paper synthesizes what is currently known about the key stages, the actor roles, and the determining factors that shape cooperative formation, and develops a research agenda that addresses existing knowledge gaps. Using Scopus, 28 articles were selected through a rigorous screening process and investigated through a thematic analysis with ATLAS.ti. The review reveals that cooperative formation is a non-linear process, whereby cooperatives may revisit earlier development stages, requiring the continuous realignment of actors. Key identified factors include social capital, facilitating cooperation and bridging to external resources, while commitment and leadership support a successful formation process. Building on the reviewed literature, this review develops a research agenda for the study of cooperative formation, with priority areas including the conceptualization of cooperative formation beyond its legal boundaries to encompass pre and post legal stages, the transition from social movement to formal organisation, and the role of actors, member commitment, and social capital across the non-linear stages of the formation process.
Agricultural cooperatives are widely recognized as interest groups engaged in lobbying activities, yet the purposes underlying their lobbying strategies remain undertheorized. Drawing on the neopluralist perspective in political science and organizational legitimacy theory, this study examines whether and how concerns about internal legitimacy, which is conferred by organizational members, drive lobbying strategy revision in member-based organizations. We analyze the case of JA Zenchu, the representative body of Japanese agricultural cooperatives, during a period of significant strategic revision from 1970 to 1986. Through qualitative documentary analysis of 40 internal archival documents held at the Zenchu Archive, we demonstrate that government agricultural policy shifts constrained Zenchu's capacity to deliver material benefits to members, thereby threatening internal legitimacy. In response, Zenchu systematically revised its strategy, shifting from direct lobbying toward indirect media campaigns emphasizing agricultural social values. This strategic shift functioned as a legitimacy recovery mechanism by providing non-material incentives—solidary and purposive—to members during a period when material incentive provision was constrained. Our findings suggest that lobbying can serve organizational maintenance functions beyond policy influence, and that cooperative political engagement should be understood as part of internal governance addressing structural challenges inherent in cooperative organization. Practical implications for cooperative management are discussed.
This paper examines the presence and distribution of cooperatives in Italy’s inner areas, territories marked by limited access to essential services and persistent socio-economic marginalisation. Cooperatives and social economy organisations have historically emerged as bottom-up responses to market and state shortcomings, yet their role in fragile and remote areas remains underexplored. Building on evidence that cooperatives are widespread in regions with weaker labour markets, this study investigates whether, and how, cooperatives act as socio-economic infrastructures in inner areas where other organisational models face structural constraints. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines descriptive and comparative statistical analysis with spatial econometrics and semi-structured interviews. Results show that while cooperatives represent only 4% of Italian enterprises, their share rises to 9.1% in ultra-peripheral municipalities, with employment contributions reaching 14% and production 7.7%. Moran’s I and LISA statistics confirm spatial clustering, suggesting that cooperative presence depends on enabling local systems rather than random factors. The exploratory interviews reveal the micro-institutional mechanisms shaping cooperative presence, highlighting their reliance on associations, municipalities, and external funding. Findings show a dual nature: cooperatives fill gaps in welfare, employment, and local development, yet remain organisationally fragile, with sustainability depending on supportive ecosystems.
This semi-systematic literature review synthesizes 90 studies on degeneration and regeneration with a focus on worker cooperatives. It asks: How do formal structures and informal practices interact to amplify regeneration and degeneration, and how are these dynamics explained across research streams, geographical contexts, and discourses? Using the Deetz Matrix as a heuristic framework and PRISMA to guide the review process, four analytical dimensions of degeneration and regeneration are identified: institutional environment, organizational governance, organizational culture and leadership, and member identity. Future research directions grounded in methodological pluralism and pathways for more context-sensitive and practice-oriented scholarship on degeneration and regeneration are proposed. Degeneration is conceptualized not as linear but as a dynamic and paradoxical phenomenon formed by institutional trajectories, governance tensions, and fluctuations in member engagement. Regeneration arises through practices that reinforce democratic values, foster cultural alignment, and cultivate psychological ownership. Despite governance mechanisms, democratic resilience ultimately depends on the interplay and alignment of structure, culture, and agency. The epistemological mapping shows a dominance of critical discourse and growing interest in ethnographic approaches. Significant gaps persist in the theorization of identity formation within worker cooperatives, considerations of institutional and historical specificity, and geographical diversification of studies on degeneration and regeneration.
Purpose: This paper investigates the determinants of performance in Farmer-Producer Organisations (FPOs) across Southern India, utilizing the 'dual nature' theoretical lens. Design/Methodology: The study employs a multi-level design combining longitudinal audited financial data (2020-2024) from purposively selected FPOs in Telangana, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh with a crosssectional survey of 333 farmers. Analytical techniques include Fixed Effects panel models and Bootstrapped LASSO regression. Findings: Results identify a 'Virtuous Cycle' where human capital investments, specifically employee training, robustly predict financial revenue, challenging the trade-off narrative. However, intra-organizational analysis reveals 'benefit asymmetry'; using standard Government of India landholding categories, we find that member satisfaction scales monotonically with land size, indicating structural inequality despite democratic governance. Additionally, uniform environmental scores suggest regulatory isomorphism. Originality: The study empirically distinguishes structural benefit asymmetry from elite capture and validates the economic utility of social embedding in institutional voids.
Under the global open innovation environment, promoting the evolution of technology innovation networks is conducive to the healthy development of the innovation ecosystem. This paper examines the evolution of community structure in technological innovation networks, shifting from macro to meso perspective. It provides empirical evidence for structural differences within these communities and enhances the understanding of the driving factors behind the evolution of technological innovation network communities, with a focus on the role of individual attributes shaped by technological characteristics. Firstly, this paper collects patent data on Chinese integrated circuits to construct the technology innovation network. Then, identify closed and open communities in the technology cooperation network. Finally, explore the driving factors of closed and open community evolution. The results show that the structural evolution of open and closed communities is unbalanced. Technological generality has a significant negative impact on community evolution, while technological diversity has a significant positive impact. The negative influence of technological complexity on the evolution of closed communities is more obvious. Geographical proximity has a more significant negative effect on the evolution of open communities. These findings are of great significance for understanding the evolution of technological innovation networks and guiding practical cooperation strategies.
Academic, practitioner, and policy interest in digital labor platforms (DLPs)-businesses that use their digital infrastructure to intermediate transactions between workers and clients who need their services-is surging. While these transformational platforms have brought many benefits, there are growing concerns about the harms and entrepreneurial risks they create for workers. As such, there is a growing interest in problematizing the ownership and governance of DLPs. Our paper critically compares three increasingly common archetypes-Corporate DLPs, Cooperative DLPs, and Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) DLPs-to discern their likelihood of addressing or exacerbating platform workers' exposure to harms and entrepreneurial risks. Our analysis identifies promising new opportunities for those interested in cultivating a digital solidarity economy by highlighting the merits and demerits of different alternatives to Corporate DLPs, as well as promising new hybrids like Cooperative DAO DLPs. Furthermore, it advances our understanding of factors that contribute to DLPs' being structured in particular ways and how choices about DLPs' structures, in turn, prompt the evolution of organizational archetypes.
With limited potential to add value to commodities, some farm producers form or join organizations to collectively manufacture food and drink products. Several farm producer organizations seek differentiation by using the farmer-owned label, but research on the topic is scarce. We therefore conducted an online survey with 457 random food consumers in the United States to inform awareness, knowledge, consumption, and perception farmer-owned brands in ten product categories. Per the results, consumer awareness is normally distributed with equal proportions of respondents who rarely or frequently see the farmer-owned label. Overall, the average consumer has a strong knowledge of the basic implications of the farmer-owned label, but subtler inferences are not understood as well. Contrary to expectations, consumer knowledge is also inversely related to awareness. terms of consumption, the farmer-owned brand share varies across product categories (20-60%). Nonetheless, the general perception of the farmer-owned label is mostly positive.
This study questions how human resource management (HRM) practices influence employee affective commitment (AC) in co-operative financial institutions (CFIs) and whether this influence is related to developing a perceived 'co-operative difference'. The two specific aims of the study are: 1) to examine how co-operative values and principles (CVP)-oriented HRM practices influence employee AC and 2) to question how CFIs' size affects the relationship between CVP-oriented HRM practices, 'co-operative difference' and AC. Drawing on the social exchange theory, we verify our model using employee data from UK building societies (N = 217) and test it using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results show that CVP-oriented HRM practices have a positive influence on perceived 'co-operative difference' and employees' AC. Moreover, it is found that the impact of CVP-oriented HRM practices on employees' AC is greater for smaller organisations. The study contributes to the limited research investigating the influence of HRM practices on the AC of employees within CFIs settings and to the cooperative governance literature by demonstrating the factors that shape the 'co-operative difference'.
Consumer cooperatives have demonstrated notable resilience during economic downturns, maintaining employment, service continuity, and community trust even in periods of widespread market distress. However, despite their growing relevance, there remains a lack of theoretically sound methods for evaluating the equity value of these organizations. Conventional valuation tools are poorly suited to cooperatives, as they typically assume the primary objective as maximizing shareholder wealth, which is often not the case in cooperatives. These models also rely on assumptions that equity is permanently invested and non-redeemable conditions that do not reflect the refundable nature of member capital in consumer cooperatives. This exploratory study investigates whether option pricing models can offer a more appropriate framework for assessing cooperative equity. Drawing on long-term financial data from three Korean consumer cooperatives, the study compares three approaches: discounted cash flow, the Black and Scholes model, and the Margrabe model. The discounted cash flow model proves inadequate due to irregular profit patterns and refund mechanism of capital. The Black and Scholes model incorporates asset volatility but retains the assumption of fixed liabilities. The Margrabe model, in contrast, allows both assets and liabilities to vary and incorporates their correlation, making it particularly suitable for cooperatives where member capital behaves like a contingent liability. Results show that the Margrabe model better captures the equity dynamics of consumer cooperatives. This study offers an initial step toward more accurate and context-sensitive valuation methods for mission-driven enterprises, providing a conceptual foundation for future research on cooperative finance.
Circular organizational templates such as holacracy and sociocracy have gained popularity. In such organizations, all members have rights to participate in decision-making. Which factors enable such organizations to sustain their circular form? We investigate 18 highly diverse circular organizations to answer this question. Our findings show that Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for avoiding the tragedy of the commons may also explain circular organizations’ longevity. With regard to their relevance, we sort these principles into three groups: indispensable, queasy, and quite unproblematic principles. Our main theoretical contribution is to show that circular organizations can be understood as commons, and thus to make research on the governance of commons fruitful for the design of circular organizations. We show that implementing circular forms has to mind especially the queasy design principles of monitoring, graduated sanctions, conflict resolution mechanisms, and balancing individual contributions and rewards.
This study presents a literature review about mergers of agricultural cooperatives. Since about 1950, merger waves have caused a sharp decline in the number of cooperatives in Western economies. Financially weak cooperatives are acquired by financially stronger neighboring cooperatives, whereby the members of the former cooperative may continue their farming operations. Merging memberships is, however, more difficult than merging cooperative business firms. The case of a merger in the Swedish grain marketing and farm supply industry illustrates the conceptual framework. As knowledge of mergers is essential to understanding the cooperative business model, suggestions for further research are provided.
The paper contributes to the theory of network governance by considering external governance of cooperative networks in the circular economy. Building on Provan and Kenis (2007) categorization of network governance structures, the paper expands the understanding of socially embedded, purpose-driven networks of cooperative enterprises. The framing of cooperative circular networks informs the literature on governance of circular economies as well, since governance in cooperative complex systems may be institutionalized as democratic multi-stakeholder enterprises, internalizing socio-ecological goals. These theoretical insights are supported by exploratory evidence from cooperative networks and multi-stakeholder spinoffs in the circular social economy.
In the European Union’s agri-food sector, where most farm businesses are small and the opportunistic behavior of powerful chain actors is a major market challenge, cooperatives substantially reinforce their members’ bargaining position. However, opportunism is also common within cooperatives, a dominant form of which surfaces when members side-sell to competing chain actors. As side-selling jeopardizes cooperatives’ viability and persists, we aim to explore novel antecedents that might also inform solutions. Motivated by the dual nature of cooperatives as a social group and a business enterprise, we examine the restraining influence of two social phenomena that explain why humans cooperate - trust and gossip - on members’ illegal side-selling behavior. With survey data from 170 members in 48 cooperatives, we find that perceived negative gossip curbs illegal side-selling, and trust has an indirect preventive effect through perceived member benefits. Taken together, our study’s findings advance the knowledge of internal opportunism in cooperatives and may prove valuable to crucial stakeholders for the development of the European Union’s agri-food sector.
We examine the effect of rural institutions on plot-level technical efficiency of teff production. We account for differences in production technology, access to the market, plot characteristics, and weather shocks across plots and investigate the robustness of the effects of rural institutions on technical efficiency across various specifications. Using a large and detailed cross-section of teff plots, we find that teff output could be increased by approximately 25 percent with the available inputs and technology through improved technical efficiency. The magnitude of technical inefficiency is robust to alternative functional forms and variable specifications. Community discussion groups and distance to the nearest agricultural co-operative have a positive relationship with technical efficiency, highlighting their potential to enhance agricultural productivity. However, we find limited evidence on the relationship between co-operative membership, visits with extension and technical efficiency of teff producers. Our results show that when studying the impact of new programs and policies in agriculture, it is important to look beyond just whether farmers are members of co-operatives. We might consider other factors, such as how much access they have to co-operative services. It is crucial for policymakers to consider implementing targeted interventions to share information on best management practices and agricultural technologies in order to address the efficiency gap in teff production.
Most cooperatives are incorporated, with a board of directors who bear legal responsibility for supervising management and setting strategic direction. How should boards exercise that role? While for-profit corporate directors can turn to practical guides, academic literature, and popular non-fiction to guide their decisions, there is much less direct guidance for directors in the coops context. The paper argues that the legal duty of cooperative directors to act in the “best interest of the cooperative” is a promising conceptual starting point to develop such guidance. It then draws from for-profit corporate governance debates and the ICA Cooperative Principles to map the promise, disadvantage and limits of three broad approaches to satisfying the best interests standard: member primacy, stakeholder approaches such as the Trustee Model and the Team Production Model, and purpose-based approaches which identify the best interest of a cooperative either with its specific, formal purpose or with the purpose(s) of cooperatives more broadly.
