For poor areas dealing with economic decline, finding development engines is a crucial issue, and natural resources are often the only asset communities have. In the paper it is argued that concept of the network governance can be applied to understand the situation, where local sustainable...

This paper examines the market and welfare effects of cooperative involvement in cost-reducing process innovation activity in the context of a mixed oligopsony where an open-membership marketing co-op competes with an investor-owned firm. The presence of the marketing co-op is shown to result in...

During the mid-1980s Vietnam experienced widespread hunger and malnutrition. This led to an economic reform process already before the transition in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (CIS). Vietnam embarked on a unique way of decollectivization which followed neither...

In the last decade the Israeli Kibbutz movement underwent crucial changes as to its level of cooperation. More than half of the Kibbutzim have changed towards a less cooperative system now characterized by increasing individualism. Since the process of organizational change occurred during a...

Financing agricultural producers is one of the most acute problems within the entire scope of economic reforms in Kazakhstan. State financial support for agriculture in Kazakhstan is episodic in nature, small in size, and seldom reaches the target recipients, while the commercial banks are...

This case study looks at the processes and functioning of mutually aided cooperative societies (MACS), the “liberal†cooperatives created through special legislation by Andhra Pradesh, India in a drive to make the cooperative structure more member- and growth-centric and less...

The historical development and performance of rural supply and marketing cooperatives (SMCs) in China are examined and linked to various reform periods. SMCs suffered a loss of focus on members as well as member control during several periods of reform and experienced declining financial...

This paper examines the profitability of a balanced sample of 58 North Dakota farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives over the period 2003– 2007. Our findings reveal that increased liquidity tended to allow farm supply cooperatives to operate more efficiently, but reduced the...

We propose a new definition of partnership, which emphasizes the role and meaning of power in creating partnership. Following a case study of change processes within a kibbutz community undergoing lifestyle changes, The proposed definition focuses on three dimensions of partnership: (a) the...

In the last twenty years Greece has witnessed the emergence and establishment of women’s cooperatives, a form of productive agricultural cooperatives. This paper explores their importance and their contribution to local development. Evidence is presented for an island region, the North...