Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives
Agricultural cooperatives play an important role all over the world. They have substantial assets, large turnovers and extensive market shares, especially in Europe and North America. North American agriculture cooperatives face strong competition, partly from many large and efficient manufacturers,...
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| Formato: | Otro |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2005
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| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10998/ |
| _version_ | 1855571789992689664 |
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| author | Karlson, Daniel |
| author_browse | Karlson, Daniel |
| author_facet | Karlson, Daniel |
| author_sort | Karlson, Daniel |
| collection | Epsilon Archive for Student Projects |
| description | Agricultural cooperatives play an important role all over the world. They have substantial assets, large turnovers and extensive market shares, especially in Europe and North America. North American agriculture cooperatives face strong competition, partly from many large and efficient manufacturers, but also since customers gets larger and fewer. However, the knowledge about how these cooperatives adjust their market strategies and organizational structure to mirror the markets is little known in a European perspective.
The purpose of the thesis is to empirically investigate and theoretically explain how and why a number of U.S. agricultural cooperatives have adapted their cooperative organizational model as their market conditions have changed. The thesis is carried out on commission of, and with financial support from Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning. With the help of U.S. expertise six agriculture cooperatives in five industries were chosen to be analyzed. During six weeks totally 15 representatives of the cooperatives were interviewed in the U.S.
The product markets have not changed dramatically the latest years due to policy changes or sudden technical breakthroughs. It is the market powers that affect the development, where extensive structural change has lead to a concentration in the food industry. 4-5 food retail chains control 50 – 60 percent of the consumer market. This change is primarily driven by the desire to reduce transaction costs and benefit from economies of scale. These changes affect cooperatives in their choice of market strategies and organizational model.
Cooperatives with high raw-product costs choose a differentiation- or focus strategy. One fascinating exception is Dairylea; it chose to gain regional control of assembling and distribution of milk. Its means to achieve this goal was favorably received by producers and has lead to a fourfold milk weigh-in. Cooperatives with low raw-product costs chooses among other market strategies, since they do not face the same market constraints.
The change in the food-industry fuels organic growth among cooperatives, since they need to provide large quantities and offer extensive product portfolios to the customers. The strive for size and scope among cooperatives has imposed increased capital needs, which has forced cooperatives to utilize various solutions for ownership and control. Joint ventures and other strategic alliances are as common as allowing external parties to make capital investment in the cooperatives. An important observation is that such cooperatives will not let external investors get ownership control in the cooperatives. These investors are tempted by 7-8 percent dividends on invested capital.
It is mainly the need for offering large volumes, many products and utilization of economies of scale that stimulates organic growth in the cooperatives. For such growth to happen producers must be tempted to join these large cooperatives. Hence they must pay well and individualize the ownership rights. This has lead to entrepreneurial cooperatives being common in the U.S., while traditional cooperatives to an increasing extent adopt characteristics that normally exist in entrepreneurial cooperatives. |
| format | Otro |
| id | RepoSLU10998 |
| institution | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences |
| language | Swedish Inglés |
| publishDate | 2005 |
| publishDateSort | 2005 |
| record_format | eprints |
| spelling | RepoSLU109982017-09-19T08:34:11Z https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10998/ Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives Karlson, Daniel Economics and management Agricultural cooperatives play an important role all over the world. They have substantial assets, large turnovers and extensive market shares, especially in Europe and North America. North American agriculture cooperatives face strong competition, partly from many large and efficient manufacturers, but also since customers gets larger and fewer. However, the knowledge about how these cooperatives adjust their market strategies and organizational structure to mirror the markets is little known in a European perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to empirically investigate and theoretically explain how and why a number of U.S. agricultural cooperatives have adapted their cooperative organizational model as their market conditions have changed. The thesis is carried out on commission of, and with financial support from Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning. With the help of U.S. expertise six agriculture cooperatives in five industries were chosen to be analyzed. During six weeks totally 15 representatives of the cooperatives were interviewed in the U.S. The product markets have not changed dramatically the latest years due to policy changes or sudden technical breakthroughs. It is the market powers that affect the development, where extensive structural change has lead to a concentration in the food industry. 4-5 food retail chains control 50 – 60 percent of the consumer market. This change is primarily driven by the desire to reduce transaction costs and benefit from economies of scale. These changes affect cooperatives in their choice of market strategies and organizational model. Cooperatives with high raw-product costs choose a differentiation- or focus strategy. One fascinating exception is Dairylea; it chose to gain regional control of assembling and distribution of milk. Its means to achieve this goal was favorably received by producers and has lead to a fourfold milk weigh-in. Cooperatives with low raw-product costs chooses among other market strategies, since they do not face the same market constraints. The change in the food-industry fuels organic growth among cooperatives, since they need to provide large quantities and offer extensive product portfolios to the customers. The strive for size and scope among cooperatives has imposed increased capital needs, which has forced cooperatives to utilize various solutions for ownership and control. Joint ventures and other strategic alliances are as common as allowing external parties to make capital investment in the cooperatives. An important observation is that such cooperatives will not let external investors get ownership control in the cooperatives. These investors are tempted by 7-8 percent dividends on invested capital. It is mainly the need for offering large volumes, many products and utilization of economies of scale that stimulates organic growth in the cooperatives. For such growth to happen producers must be tempted to join these large cooperatives. Hence they must pay well and individualize the ownership rights. This has lead to entrepreneurial cooperatives being common in the U.S., while traditional cooperatives to an increasing extent adopt characteristics that normally exist in entrepreneurial cooperatives. Lantbrukskooperativa företag spelar en viktig roll i stora delar av världen. De har betydande tillgångar, stor omsättning och höga marknadsandelar, inte minst i Europa och Nordamerika. Amerikansk lantbrukskooperation är starkt konkurrensutsatt, dels eftersom det finns många stora och effektiva producentföretag, dels eftersom kunderna blir färre och större. Kunskapen om hur de kooperativa företagen anpassar sin marknadsstrategi och organisationsstruktur till sina marknader är begränsad sett ur ett svenskt perspektiv. Studiens syfte är att empiriskt undersöka och teoretiskt förklara hur och varför ett antal amerikanska lantbrukskooperativa företag har anpassat sin organisationella struktur till förändringar i sina produktmarknader. Projektet är genomfört på uppdrag och med finansiellt stöd av Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning. Med hjälp av amerikansk expertis valdes sex kooperativa företag i fem branscher att studera. Under en period av sex veckor intervjuades totalt 15 företagsrepresentanter på plats i USA. Intervjuerna varade från 40 minuter till 1.5 timmar. Under senare år har inte marknaderna förändrats på något omvälvande sätt till följd av ändrade politiska regleringar eller plötsliga tekniska framsteg. Däremot påverkar marknadskrafterna utvecklingen, där omfattande strukturförändringar inom dagligvaruhandeln har lett till en omfattande koncentration inom livsmedelsindustrin. 4-5 aktörer kontrollerar 50 – 60 procent av konsumentmarknaden. Denna förändring är främst driven av kedjornas strävan efter att sänka transaktionskostnader samt att utnyttja stordriftsfördelar. Dessa förändringar påverkar kooperativa företag i deras val av marknadsstrategi och organisationsmodell. Företag med höga kostnader väljer en differentieringsstrategi eller fokusstrategi. Ett intressant undantag är Dairylea, som valt att skaffa sig regional kontroll över upphämtning och distribution av mjölk. Denna strategi har legat till grund för en fyrfaldig organisk tillväxt under 90-talet. Företag med lägre råvarukostnader väljer bland andra strategier. Dessa företag är inte så kringskurna och begränsade i sitt val av marknadsstrategi. Förändringarna inom dagligvaruhandeln driver fram organisk tillväxt bland de kooperativa företagen för att de ska kunna leverera tillräckligt stora volymer och ha tillräckligt breda produktportföljer. Kraven på ökad företagsstorlek har inneburit ett ökat kapitalbehov, vilket har förmått de kooperativa företagen att finna nya lösningar för ägande och kontroll. Det är lika vanligt med joint ventures och andra samarbeten som det är med externa investerare. Exempelvis kan försäkringsinstitut vara delägare i moderföreningarna. En viktig observation är att kooperativen inte låter externa investerare få någon kontroll i moderföreningarna. Dessa investerare lockas av fasta utdelningsnivåer om 7-8 procent på placerat kapital. Framför allt är det behovet av att erbjuda varierade produktportföljer, leverera omfattande volymer och att utnyttja stordriftsfördelar som driver kooperativ att växa organiskt. För att sådan tillväxt ska kunna ske måste medlemmar lockas att leverera till dessa stora kooperativa företag. Därför måste dessa företag ha god betalningsförmåga samtidigt som de ser till att medlemmarna får allt mer av individuellt ägande. Det har inneburit att förekomsten av entreprenöriella kooperativ i USA är omfattande, samtidigt som traditionella kooperativ mer och mer använder sig av karaktäristika som normalt existerar i entreprenöriella kooperativ. 2005-03-30 Other NonPeerReviewed application/pdf sv https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10998/1/karlson_d_170919.pdf Karlson, Daniel, 2005. Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives. UNSPECIFIED, Uppsala. Uppsala: (NL, NJ) > Dept. of Economics <https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/view/divisions/OID-510.html> urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-6955 eng |
| spellingShingle | Economics and management Karlson, Daniel Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title | Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title_full | Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title_fullStr | Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title_short | Organizational models in U.S. agricultural cooperatives |
| title_sort | organizational models in u.s. agricultural cooperatives |
| topic | Economics and management |
| url | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10998/ https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/10998/ |