Co-operatives as a strategic network of small firms: Case studies from Australian and French co-operatives

Cooperative Organization and Its Characteristics in Economic and Social Development (1995 to 2020)

Proceeding from the idea that it is possible to correlate economic with social development, this research focus on cooperatives and their management systems. Based on studies and publications on cooperative management practices in several countries, this study seeks to acquire sufficient knowledge about cooperatives to understand them as efficient and proactive organizations. They seek an alignment between economic and social development of their members sharing a common goal of prosperity. This study pursues the following question: “Does the competence of the operational management of cooperatives make it possible for cooperative members to overcome the obstacles that prevent their social and economic development?” To answer this question, it was proposed to carry out a bibliometric analysis of the cooperative systems in several countries between 1995 and 2020, with the focus on the economic and social development of their members. As for the methodology employed in this study, a collection of publications on cooperatives in the world and a systematic review was organized. As a result, the characteristics of cooperatives could be identified, allowing an overview of the organizations’ qualifications as promoters of social and economic development.

Evaluations of the Roles of Organizational Support, Organizational Norms and Organizational Learning for Adopting Environmentally Friendly Technologies: A Case of Kiwifruit Farmers’ Cooperatives of Meixian, China

Environmentally friendly technologies have long been recognized as a widespread phenomenon working within the functions and performance of farms. Farmer’s cooperative organization might profoundly foster the environmentally friendly technologies (EFT) and availing competitive advantage to the farmer. Illustrated by the natural-resource-based view of the farm (NRBV), this study examined the influence of organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning on adopting EFT and proposed a model quantifying the impacts of these approaches towards availing competitive capabilities (i.e., cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery). The framework is empirically endorsed by employing the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the help of a household survey from a spectrum of 292 farmers of 38 kiwifruit cooperatives of Meixian County, China, from August to September 2020. The findings demonstrate that organizational support, organizational norms, and organizational learning positively influence EFT. Moreover, the study found EFT positively impacts product cost, product quality, product delivery, and production flexibility. Interestingly, the relationship between the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies and the competitive capabilities of kiwifruit farmers of Meixian is positively significant. The study proposes several policy recommendations emphasizing the role of organizations in the form of farmer’s cooperatives in boosting farmers to engage in proenvironmental behavior and, therefore, shifting the trends of future research directions on the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies.