In the paper are depicted the lessons and the problems of functioning and restructuring of cooperative structures in agricultural sector in Bulgaria during the pre-accession period (1995- 2006). The unsolved institutional and legislative problems of these structures are shown in details. The...

Recent studies have questioned the competitiveness of agricultural cooperatives in an industrialized food system, based on empirical results and economic theory. New organizational institutions have been proposed to overcome the cooperative main weaknesses (the so called new generation...

In this paper, we use the experience of Kenya's failing Coffee Cooperatives to show that, under certain circumstances, membership based organizations can give rise to perverse incentives that undermine the benefits of organizing and lead to a reduction in member productivity and welfare. We...

Given the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war, there has been massive changes in the agricultural structure in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In particular, the remade cooperatives and the unions of cooperatives that are supposed to serve them are struggling. This paper examines the needs of the...

Since the inception of Pro-Fac Cooperative (PF) in 1960, the cooperative has undergone significant structural and organizational changes. The PF case presents a unique opportunity to examine the changes in the processed fruit and vegetable industry and the strategies adopted by a producer-owned...

This paper introduces and defines the concept of collective entrepreneurship. A review of the defensive single-level rent-seeking objective of traditional agricultural cooperatives is introduced followed by an analysis of recent studies documenting a shift in the objective functions of producers...

Based on the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS), we develop a tool for mangers of local farm cooperative stores to assess which customer service groups matter to their customers. Principal component analysis (PCA) reveals three customer groups. The results of the multinomial logit model showed...

This article examines the use of Economic Value Added (EVA) as a performance measure that South African wine co-operatives can use to determine whether value has been created for members. A detailed explanation of EVA is given, and the components of EVA are calculated. The EVA's of a number of...

The present paper investigates the effect of certain economic factors on the competitiveness of Greek Wine Enterprises and Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives (UACs). Data on 41 wineries and 10 UACs of Greece was collected for a period of three years (2004-2006). Financial analysis results were...