Files
Abstract
Much of the current research on agricultural cooperatives is biased towards
weaknesses of the cooperative organization form. The literature says very
little about the strengths and advantages of the cooperative form and what
is necessary to develop the form's uniqueness into a sustainable competitive
advantage. We argue that for cooperatives to remain viable and competitive,
the advantages of the form must be clearly manifested. There is now a lack of
systematic theorizing in this field. Typically, the weaknesses of the cooperative
form are compared to the strengths of the investor-owned firms. Our point
is that the cooperative form is based on a logic which is different from that
captured by the image of rationality, seemingly prevalent in many current
studies of cooperatives. There is a call for a more coherent theory of the
competitiveness of the cooperative form. So far, the contributions based on
agency theory and transaction cost economics (TeE) are essentially met by an
optimistic but incomplete cooperative ideology.