In order to foster the competitiveness of the food supply chain, the European Commission is committed to promote and facilitate the restructuring and consolidation of the agricultural sector by encouraging the creation of voluntary agricultural producer organisations. To support the policy...

Social capital is one of the most crucial factors determining the effectiveness of operations in a cooperative organisation. When membership of a cooperative decreases, the financial capital also decreases. An important asset of cooperatives is the commitment and loyalty of their members....

Based on a survey on farmers in Finland, this study examined the extent to which farmer co-operatives enjoy social capital within their memberships as they become internationalised. Findings from limited dependent variable regressions suggest that one group of farmers is loyal to the...