Vertical Markets and Cooperative Hierarchies: The Role of Cooperatives in the Agri-Food Industry

ISBN-13: 9789048170319 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 285 str.

Kostas Karantininis;Jerker Nilsson

Opis

Agricultural cooperatives have strong market positions in agri-food industries, in many countries. In recent decades we have witnessed significant changes in competition, distribution of market power and governance structures of agri-food chains. Between vertical market structures, cooperative principles, and hierarchical governance structures, cooperatives have been continuously adjusting in their strive for competitiveness, innovation, and survival. They have implemented alternative governance structures, employed new financial instruments, and invented novel organizational set-ups. Consequently, some members feel that the traditional cooperative traits are fading. The competitiveness of agricultural cooperatives is puzzling to many observers, considering that cooperatives, at least in principle, deviate from the profit maximizing drive of the investor-owned firms. Furthermore little is known about the effect of governance structures of today s cooperatives on the agri-food industry. Vertical Markets and Cooperative Hierarchies comprises a selection of sixteen newly written essays that provide clarification to issues pertinent to contemporary cooperatives. Twenty three internationally recognized scholars of agricultural cooperatives, from a variety of disciplines such as industrial organization, finance, sociology, networks, and political theory, contributed theoretical work and empirical observations from different countries. The book is divided into five Parts: I. Cooperatives: between markets and hierarchies; II. Governance; III. Internal organizational issues; IV. Conduct of cooperatives; and V. Cooperative performance."

Spis treści

I. THE COOPERATIVE: BETWEEN MARKET AND HIERARCHY.- 1. Cooperatives: Hierarchies or Hybrids?; Claude Ménard.- 2. The Network Form of the Cooperative Organization – An Illustration with the Danish Pork Industry; Kostas Karantininis.- 3. Networks, Innovation and Performance – Evidence from a Cluster of Wine Cooperatives (Languedoc, South of France); Yuna Chiffoleau, Fabrice Dreyfus, Rafael Stofer & Jean-Marc Touzard.- II. GOVERNANCE.- 4. Conversions and Other Forms of Exit in U.S. Agricultural Cooperatives; Fabio Chaddad & Michael Cook.- 5. The Structure of Marketing Cooperative – A Members' Perspective; Nikos Kalogeras, J.M.E. Pennings, Gert van Dijk & I.A. van der Lans.- 6. Agency and Leadership in Cooperatives – Endogenizing Organizational Commitment; Murray Fulton & Konstantinos Giannakas.- III. INTERNAL ORGANIZATION.- 7. Lock-in of Farmers in Agricultural Cooperatives – Reviving the Effect of Exit by Means of Constitutional Amendments; Søren Vincents Svendsen.- 8. Two Vignettes Regarding Boards in Cooperatives versus Corporations; George Hendrikse.- 9. Regulation, Governance and Capital Structure in Cooperatives; Anastassios Gentzoglanis.- IV. CONDUCT.- 10. Cooperative Forward Integration in Oligopsonistic Markets – A Simulation Analysis of Incentives and Impacts; Jeffrey Royer.- 11. European Dairy Cooperative Strategies – Horizontal Integration versus Diversity; Laurence Harte & John J. O’Connell.- 12. Sales Distortion in Heterogeneous Cooperatives; Peter Bogetoft & Henrik Ballebye Olesen.- 13. Do Consumers Care about Cooperatives? A Franco-Swedish Comparative Study of Consumer Perceptions; Jerker Nilsson, Philippe Ruffio & Stéphane Gouin.- V. PERFORMANCE.- 14. The Horizon Problem Reconsidered; Henrik Ballebye Olesen.- 15. The Horizon Problem in Agricultural Cooperatives – Only in Theory?; Erik Fahlbeck.- 16. Performance of Cooperatives and Investor–Owned Firms – The Case of the Greek Dairy Industry; Ourania Notta & Aspassia Vlachvei.

O autorze

Kostas Karantininis is research professor of Economics of Agri-Food Supply Chains & Cooperatives at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark.

Jerker Nilsson is professor of cooperative business at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden.

Blurb

Agricultural cooperatives have strong market positions in agri-food industries, in many countries. In recent decades we have witnessed significant changes in competition, distribution of market power and governance structures of agri-food chains. Between vertical market structures, cooperative principles, and hierarchical governance structures, cooperatives have been continuously adjusting in their strive for competitiveness, innovation, and survival. They have implemented alternative governance structures, employed new financial instruments, and invented novel organizational set-ups. Consequently, some members feel that the traditional cooperative traits are fading.

The competitiveness of agricultural cooperatives is puzzling to many observers, considering that cooperatives, at least in principle, deviate from the profit maximizing drive of the investor-owned firms. Furthermore little is known about the effect of governance structures of today’s cooperatives on the agri-food industry.

Vertical Markets and Cooperative Hierarchies comprises a selection of sixteen newly written essays that provide clarification to issues pertinent to contemporary cooperatives. Twenty three internationally recognized scholars of agricultural cooperatives, from a variety of disciplines such as industrial organization, finance, sociology, networks, and political theory, contributed theoretical work and empirical observations from different countries. The book is divided into five Parts: I. Cooperatives: between markets and hierarchies; II. Governance; III. Internal organizational issues; IV. Conduct of cooperatives; and V. Cooperative performance.

About the Editors:

Kostas Karantininis is research professor of Economics of Agri-Food Supply Chains and Cooperatives at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark.

Jerker Nilsson is professor of Cooperative Business at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden.