What is the impact of democratic control on cooperative decision making? The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework for the analysis of democratic control. It suggests that democratic control does not guarantee optimal decisions for the cooperative. Suboptimal decisions...

Firms may seek contractual alternatives to vertical integration in order to achieve transactional economies or adjust for market imperfections. Blair and Kaserman have shown that under fixed-proportions production technology. Firms within bilateral and successive monopoly market structures can...

This paper uses the Nerlovian partial adjustment model to test the hypothesis that the rate of a cooperative's adjustment to a desired financial position is partially determined by its management practices. The results indicate that management practices that are board responsibilities are not...

This paper describes a set of basic cooperative principles adopted in a recent Agricultural Cooperative Service study and how these principles relate to various cooperative business practices and issues facing U.S. cooperative organizations. Three principles relating use of a cooperative to...

This research examines the effect of risk on the proportion of equity held by agricultural cooperatives. The measured components of risk are business risk and the financial risk that is dependent on the proportion of debt in the cooperative's capital structure. The empirical results indicate the...

This paper applies concepts of member sovereignty (capability of people to create and effect decisions on how a system should operate and change) and equality (even distribution of articulation possibilities among members) to large agricultural cooperatives. Equality is reconceptualized to refer...

Organizational charts of membership structures can be useful tools for monitoring member control when they accurately depict a concept of control grounded in context and theory. This paper develops the concept "member control" by placing it within cooperative principles and democratic theory....

Changing farm numbers and a changing farm supply industry have prompted many regional cooperatives to consider consolidation of local branches as a means of remaining profitable. A behavioral model has been developed that would permit management of regional cooperatives to consider consolidation...