IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jbusin/v1y2021i2p9-126d629633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Democratic Administration and Commitment of Members of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Case Study from a Prefecture in Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantina Ragazou

    (Department of Planning and Regional Development, Polytechnic School, University of Thessaly, 38 334 Volos, Greece)

  • Evgenia Anastasiou

    (Department of Planning and Regional Development, Polytechnic School, University of Thessaly, 38 334 Volos, Greece)

  • George Theodossiou

    (Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Business, University of Thessaly, 41 500 Larisa, Greece)

  • Konstantinos Koutsogeorgos

    (Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Business, University of Thessaly, 41 500 Larisa, Greece)

Abstract

Cooperatives are democratic organizations, governed and controlled by their members, who are actively involved in their policy-making and decision-making process. The aim of this paper is to investigate the correlation between cooperative culture and the way that cooperatives are governed. To this end, a probability sampling method is used in the agricultural cooperatives of the Greek prefecture of Larissa, which is one of the most powerful and dynamic in the agricultural economy. The data collection was carried out to 100 members of agricultural cooperatives through the use of a closed-ended questionnaire. The findings highlighted that agricultural cooperatives are distinguished for their increased level of cooperative culture and commitment, provided that the conditions for the democratic governance of cooperatives are met. The role played by the level of education of the members of the agricultural cooperatives was also important, thus confirming the main purpose of the research, which was none other than to prove this correlation. Finally, this correlation can lead to the improvement of certain elements which contribute to the optimization of agricultural governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantina Ragazou & Evgenia Anastasiou & George Theodossiou & Konstantinos Koutsogeorgos, 2021. "Democratic Administration and Commitment of Members of Agricultural Cooperatives: A Case Study from a Prefecture in Greece," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-12, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jbusin:v:1:y:2021:i:2:p:9-126:d:629633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7116/1/2/9/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7116/1/2/9/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grashuis, Jasper & Cook, Michael Lee, 2019. "A structural equation model of cooperative member satisfaction and long-term commitment," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 22(2).
    2. Hakelius, Karin & Hansson, Helena, 2016. "Members’ attitudes towards cooperatives and their perception of agency problems," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(4), October.
    3. Wolz, Axel & Möllers, Judith & Micu, Marius Mihai, 2020. "Options for agricultural service cooperatives in a postsocialist economy: Evidence from Romania," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 49(1), pages 57-65.
    4. Fulton, Joan R. & Adamowicz, Wiktor L., 1993. "Factors That Influence the Commitment of Members to Their Cooperative Organization," Journal of Agricultural Cooperation, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, vol. 8, pages 1-15.
    5. Andrei Cechin & Jos Bijman & Stefano Pascucci & Onno Omta, 2013. "Decomposing the Member Relationship in Agricultural Cooperatives: Implications for Commitment," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 39-61, January.
    6. Stella Manika & Evgenia Anastasiou, 2020. "Regional Economics in Greece: A Spatial Analysis of Business and Population Dynamics," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala Campus, Greece, vol. 13(2), pages 70-82, September.
    7. Jerker NILSSON, 1996. "The Nature Of Cooperative Values And Principles," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 633-653, December.
    8. Sergaki, Panagiota & Semos, Anastasios V., 2006. "The Greek Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives as efficient enterprises," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 7(2), pages 1-13, July.
    9. Andrei CECHIN & Jos BIJMAN & Stefano PASCUCCI & Decio ZYLBERSZTAJN & Onno OMTA, 2013. "Drivers Of Pro-Active Member Participation In Agricultural Cooperatives: Evidence From Brazil," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 84(4), pages 443-468, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amiquero, K. (Katty) Sanchez & Wubben, E.F.M. (Emiel) & van Dam, Y.K. (Ynte) & Trienekens, J.H. (Jacques), 2023. "Success and failure factors in agricultural cooperatives," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 14(01), January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karin Hakelius & Jerker Nilsson, 2020. "The Logic behind the Internal Governance of Sweden’s Largest Agricultural Cooperatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Constantine Iliopoulos & Vladislav Valentinov, 2018. "Member Heterogeneity in Agricultural Cooperatives: A Systems-Theoretic Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Iliopoulos, Constantine & Valentinov, Vladislav, 2018. "Member heterogeneity in agricultural cooperatives: A systems-theoretic perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22.
    4. Morfi, Chrysa & Ollila, Petri & Nilsson, Jerker & Surry, Yves & Feng, Li & Karantininis, Konstantinos, 2014. "The switching behaviour of Finnish co-operative members in relation to their commitment and loyalty," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182774, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Chrysoula Morfi & Jerker Nilsson & Karin Hakelius & Kostas Karantininis, 2021. "Social networks and member participation in cooperative governance," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 264-285, April.
    6. Entsminger, Jason S., 2017. "Identity Comparison and Member Commitment to Agricultural Cooperatives: A Renewed Analysis Comparing Two Estimation Techniques," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258505, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Smaïl Amghrous & Damien Rousselière, 2019. "L’implication des agriculteurs dans les coopératives dans un pays en transition vers une économie de marché : Une application aux coopératives agricoles de services algériennes," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 724-749, September.
    8. Viergutz, Tim & Schulze-Ehlers, Birgit, 2018. "Member Commitment and Switching Decisions in Dairy Cooperatives – A Factorial Survey," 2018 International European Forum (163rd EAAE Seminar), February 5-9, 2018, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 276864, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    9. Hao, J., 2018. "Cooperative member commitment, trust and social pressure -- the role of members’ participation in the decision-making," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275881, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Hakelius, Karin & Hansson, Helena, 2016. "Members’ attitudes towards cooperatives and their perception of agency problems," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(4), October.
    11. Miguel Hernández‐Espallardo & Narciso Arcas‐Lario & Jorge L. Sánchez‐Navarro & Gustavo Marcos‐Matás, 2022. "Curbing members' opportunism in first‐tier and federated agricultural marketing cooperatives," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 195-219, January.
    12. Wendong Deng & George Hendrikse & Qiao Liang, 2021. "Internal social capital and the life cycle of agricultural cooperatives," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 301-323, January.
    13. Sergaki, P. & Mastronikolos, G. & Kontogeorgos, A. & Semos, A., 2016. "Linking Strategic Orientations with Performance Levels: A Case of Greek Agricultural Cooperatives," Conference Papers 261307, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics.
    14. Damien Rousselière, 2019. "A Flexible Approach to Age Dependence in Organizational Mortality: Comparing the Life Duration for Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Enterprises Using a Bayesian Generalized Additive Discrete Time Survi," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(4), pages 829-855, December.
    15. Ewert, Joachim & Hanf, Jon H. & Schweichert, Erik, 2014. "Adaptation of South African Wine Cooperatives to Challenging Business Environments," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 42(2), pages 1-16.
    16. Justine Valette & Paul Amadieu & Patrick Sentis, 2018. "Les coopératives résistent-elles mieux ? Une analyse de survie des coopératives agricoles françaises," Post-Print hal-01990418, HAL.
    17. Elena MELIA-MARTI & Ana Maria MARTINEZ-GARCIA, 2015. "Characterization And Analysis Of Cooperative Mergers And Their Results," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(3), pages 479-504, September.
    18. Julia HÖHLER & Rainer KÜHL, 2018. "Dimensions Of Member Heterogeneity In Cooperatives And Their Impact On Organization – A Literature Review," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(4), pages 697-712, December.
    19. Imami, Drini & Valentinov, Vladislav & Skreli, Engjell, 2021. "Food safety and value chain coordination in the context of a transition economy: The role of agricultural cooperatives," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 15(1), pages 21-34.
    20. Ourania Tremma & Achilleas Kontogeorgos & Philippos Karipidis & Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, 2021. "Mapping the Market Segments for the Consumers of Greek Cooperative Food Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-20, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jbusin:v:1:y:2021:i:2:p:9-126:d:629633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.