Rural Co-operatives and Sustainable Development

Asian development policy review, 2023

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC), which is represented by structural capital (SC), relational capital [RC], and human capital (HC), and member participation (MP) and performance within the context of agricultural cooperatives. This study employs a survey technique involving 104 palm oil smallholders' cooperatives in Peninsular Malaysia, and the data are analyzed through the partial least squares (PLS) technique. The results indicate that MP and RC have a significant direct relationship with cooperatives' financial performance. Simultaneously, MP also has a direct and significant relationship with the cooperatives' non-financial performance. This proves that MP is the most important intangible resource that determines the cooperatives' financial and non-financial performance. Members' cooperation contributes through active involvement and sharing of constructive ideas, while RC contributes to the competitive advantages in cooperatives' business dealings. Meanwhile, SC and HC have non-significant relationships with cooperative performance. The findings confirm the postulation of the RBV that internal resources are useful to gain superior performance in the marketplace. Therefore, management of agricultural cooperatives must maintain good relationships with their members and relevant constituencies to ensure sustainable performance. Contribution/Originality: The originality of this study lies in its attempt to explore the performance determinants within the context of palm oil smallholder cooperatives, which is scarce in current literature. Thus, the study enriches the current knowledge pertaining to the performance behaviors of agricultural cooperatives from the RBV theoretical perspective. 1. INTRODUCTION Cooperatives have a major role in mitigating poverty and promoting the well-being of the people, especially their members. Additionally, cooperatives serve as catalysts for promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, and they provide employment for local people. The contributions occur through engagement in various economic activities that create employment, business and income opportunities for the local people (Esim, 2014). Moreover, the agricultural cooperatives have contributed to a relatively better quality of life and the empowerment of small

REBRAE

This study aims to analyze the organizational resources to assist the coop to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The unit of analysis in this study, the coop itself, has been showing on the market, its growth last year was more than 30%, reaching the second place in its segment on a national level. From this market segmentation are used various resources, as well as physical, human and organizational. The theory of research based view on resources and VRIO model provided the theoretical basis for this study. The research was used characterized with descriptive and objective quantitative method, and data collection via survey and secondary sources. As an instrument of collection, a questionnaire was used; which has been already validated by other theoretical studies. The questionnaire was applied with tactical and strategic-level managers of the coop , whereas a total of 152 answers respecting a sampling error of approximately 6%. For analysis of the primary data statistic was used: relative frequency, average, standard deviation, Pearson correlation and factor analysis. The main results obtained for a sustainable competitive advantage are physical capital resources with greater perception of influence. The feature of organizational capital was considered of minor influence to the achievement of competitive advantage. However, it is noteworthy that the major averages highlight the items: ethics and respect to Member (physical Capital resource), the mark of the coop (feature of Organizational Capital), the training offered by coop and the benefits offered by the cooperative (Human Capital resource). This work helps the perception of managers who experience the daily life of the coop , in relation to available resources,

International Journal of Business and Society

Performance can be affected by various factors that differ across organisational contexts. This study aims to identify and describe the catalyst and constraint factors for agriculture cooperative performance based on top management perspectives. Structured interviews were used to gather data from six informants, who were board members of their respective cooperatives. Thematic analysis was used to extract significant patterns from the interview transcripts. The findings indicated the themes of catalyst factors, namely, members’ support, internal commitment and cooperation, obeying rules and maintaining good reputation with the responsible authority, the management team's integrity and the management's determination to achieve the desired objective(s). Meanwhile, the constraint factors for cooperative performance include high-risk avoidance amongst cooperative board members, disagreement amongst board members, market competition and uncertainty of the fresh fruit bunch produc...

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2016

The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance level between the traditional agricultural cooperatives and the cooperatives with capital-seeking entities in the Greek food sector. Previous researches suggest that the performance of the cooperatives is determined by their organizational design. Thus, this fact imposes the need to examine if the organizational models applied by the agricultural cooperatives affect their profitability outcome. This is the first Greek survey on performance contrasting traditional agricultural cooperatives and cooperatives with capital-seeking entities. Financial data of 34 cooperative organizations were used in a profitability equation, estimated with generalized error-structure model for a 5-years period. The findings show that there are differences in the economic results and the factors affecting profitability between these two types of cooperatives, providing evidence that the organizational type affects performance. The results also indicate that there exists management inefficiency especially for the traditional cooperatives. Based on the particular findings, cooperative practitioners and policymakers could advance their knowledge in order to boost performance level in cooperatives.

The agricultural and marketing cooperatives societies (AMCOS) are most vibrant cooperatives in Tanzania deal with production, processing, transporting and marketing of various crops. In Tanzania, the dominant varieties of such cooperatives are those dealing cash crop cooperatives like those for coffee, tobacco, cashew nuts and cotton though recently, food crops cooperative started to emerge. Moshi district is among the areas in Tanzania which have a long history of cooperative development and is comprised of AMCOS dealing with coffee production. Given the changes in the natural, economic and business environment in the world, the changes have created both benefits and severe challenges to the coffee cooperatives. The main objective was to assess the determinants of success in agricultural marketing cooperatives in Tanzania. Specifically, the study intended; to describe the activities performed by coffee agricultural marketing cooperatives , to identify and analyse the social factors determining the successful operations of coffee agricultural marketing cooperatives and to identify and analyse the economic and financial factors determining the successful operations of coffee agricultural marketing cooperatives. The design of the study is multiple-case study which three coffee cooperatives of Mweka Sungu, Mruwia and Uru North Njari were used. The study is written based on the field experiences and knowledge of the authors about the three case studies. The study revealed that success of AMCOS may be determined by social factors like; leadership, member participation, communication, equality, members' commitment, education, size of cooperative and skilled leaders and management. Economically, there are factors like; financial stability, adhering to accounting standards, cooperation with other institutions, volume of business and diversification, location and quality of produce. The study has also recommended on preconditions to ensure the determinants yield expected achievements.

Ecological Engineering, 2008

This study is a qualitative exploratory analysis of the communities of Turrialba, Siquirres and Guácimo, which border the Parismina River of Costa Rica. The main purpose of this study is to identify the structural weaknesses that are present in the enterprises and the impact of these weaknesses on the capacity for raising the sustainable development competitiveness for the area. The study used semi-structured interviews and focal interviews as instruments of data collection. In addition, the study used the community of Los Santos, located in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, as a reference for comparison. The results indicate weaknesses related to the capacity of organization, financial knowledge, and low technological innovation that demonstrates that the enterprises have a greater direction towards spurious competitiveness.

Journal of International Development, 2015

It has been argued that current interest in cooperatives is because they can reduce poverty and are resilient organisations. However histories of co-operatives' successes and failures suggests that cooperative organisational resilience needs better understanding. This article reviews the literature, particularly with respect to sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that cooperative organisational resilience centres on co-operatives' multi-dimensionality and the development of collective capability in five mutually reinforcing areas of activity. These are: membership, networks, collective skills in governance, innovation, and engagement with governments. Together, they strengthen cooperatives' resilience but, where lacking, they undermine it. The article adds to thinking about 'cooperative advantage'.

Recoletos Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 2013

Los grupos de preguntas que se incluyen en las pruebas de química son los siguientes: