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Empowering electricity : co-operatives, sustainability, and power sector reform in Canada
\"Canada is known for being an energy producing nation--with much attention being paid to the Alberta tar sands and their large carbon footprint. This book looks at a very different part of the Canadian energy sector: the hundreds of renewable energy co-ops that have sprung up across the nation. These co-ops are democratically structured, community-based organizations that use sun, wind, rivers, tides, and plant and animal waste as sources of local power generation. Empowering Electricity offers an illuminating analysis of these co-ops within the context of larger debates over climate change, renewable electricity policy, sustainable community development, and provincial power-sector ownership. It looks at the conditions that led to this new wave of co-operative development, examines their form and location, and shines a light on the promises and challenges accompanying their development.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Agricultural cooperatives and farm sustainability – A literature review
We present a literature review of the role played by agricultural cooperatives in influenc-ing farm sustainability. We first focus on the theoretical literature to highlight the various economicbehaviours of cooperatives. Then we investigate all three dimensions of sustainability in developingand developed countries. We aim at linking the empirical findings to the theoretical understandingof cooperatives, in particular members' heterogeneity. This paper shows that cooperatives playa non-negligible role in farm economic sustainability and in the adoption of environmentallyfriendly practices, suggesting that both public policies and private initiatives in cooperatives maybe complementary. As regards social sustainability, there are only a few studies existing on the roleof agricultural cooperatives. The trade-off between economic and environmental sustainability incooperatives would need to be further investigated.
Paper
Analysing the links between cooperative principles, entrepreneurial orientation and performance
Cooperatives are enterprises characterised by certain principles, such as cooperation, democratic decision-making, and training that define their entrepreneurial behaviours. Several of these cooperative principles appear to exert a positive influence on the performance of these firms and on the three dimensions that define the entrepreneurial orientation of companies: proactiveness, innovativeness, and risk-taking. This study builds a theoretical model that relates cooperative principles, entrepreneurial orientation, and performance from the perspective of corporate governance and human resource management practices, in order to study the links that may exist between these elements. Using data from a survey on 155 worker cooperatives in the Basque Country (Spain) and applying the partial least squares technique, we find that cooperative principles positively affect the performance of cooperatives, both directly and via entrepreneurial orientation.
Journal Article
Power : how the electric co-op movement energized the Lone Star State
\"According to author Joe Holley, the story of the Texas Electric Cooperatives, a collective of some 76 member-owned electric providers throughout the state, is a story of neighborliness and community, grit and determination, and persuasion and political savvy. It's the story of a grassroots movement that not only energized rural Texas but also showed residents the power they have when they band together to find strength in unity. Opening with the coming of electricity to Texas' major cities at the turn of the twentieth century, Power: How the Electric Co-op Movement Energized the Lone Star State describes the dramatic differences between urban and rural life. Though the major cities of Texas were marvels of nighttime brilliance, the countryside remained as dark as it had been for centuries before. It was not economical for the startup electrical companies to provide service to far-flung rural areas, so they were forced to do without. Beginning with the New Deal-era efforts of Sam Rayburn, Lyndon Johnson, and others, Holley chronicles the birth and development of the electric cooperative movement in Texas, including the 1935 federal act that created the Rural Electrification Administration. Holley concludes with the devastation wrought by Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 and the intense debate that continues around climate resilience and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), overseer of the state's electric grid, all of which has profound implications for rural electric cooperatives who receive their allocations according to procedures administered by ERCOT. Power is sure to enlighten, entertain, and energize readers and policymakers alike\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Quality and quantity incentives under downstream contracts: A role for agricultural cooperatives?
This article provides a new explanation for the positive role of cooperatives in quality provision along the agri-food chain. We study the economic rationale for cooperative acting as an intermediary between producers and a downstream (DS) firm when the DS firm cannot observe the individual quality of producers but only the average quality. We derive the optimal contract to elicit the quality and quantity incentives for producers, depending on whether the DS firm directly deals with producers or indirectly deals with them through a producer-owned cooperative. We find that when the DS firm directly deals with producers via secret contracts, the opportunistic behavior of the DS firm on producers leads to lower quality and quantity levels. The opportunistic behavior is prevented when the DS firm deals with the producer cooperative. However, the contract should offer a sufficiently high quality payment to overcome the free-riding inefficiency of the producer members.
Paper
Significant barriers to the adoption of the agricultural cooperative model of entrepreneurship: a literature review
PurposeLiterature contributions to agricultural cooperative (AC) entrepreneurship model are fragmented and show some significant limitations. The purpose of this paper is to identify the existing important barriers to this entrepreneurship model as well as to group them into respective themes.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review (SLR) of peer reviewed journal articles was carried out by the authors in well-known databases, such as Scopus, Emerald, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, IDEAS/RePEc search and Web of Science. In total, 78 articles from 26 different countries during 2010–2019 were collected.FindingsA large number of important barriers are identified in the literature and meaningful dimensions of these barriers are also revealed.Practical implicationsThe study has important implications regarding the ways to improve the effectiveness of AC model. Researchers and practitioners can use the results presented in this study for further development of this model.Originality/valueThis study presents the important barriers in AC model in global scope analytically and groups them into meaningful themes, which significantly differentiate the present SLR study from those published so far.
Journal Article
A comparative study of capital structure compositions in grain marketing and input supply cooperatives
PurposeThe objective of the study is to explore explanations for the capital structure compositions of farmer cooperatives, which have a unique equity structure with allocated equity as well as unallocated equity.Design/methodology/approachData came from a panel of US grain marketing and input supply cooperatives for the 2010–2020 period. The study is concerned with the proportions of debt, allocated equity and unallocated equity, which requires the application of a fractional multinomial panel model to ensure predictions fall within the observed data range (i.e. 0–1).FindingsLarger cooperatives have relatively high debt proportions. Diversification of the product portfolio has a positive effect on the debt proportion. Profitability is associated with higher debt proportions in input supply cooperatives and higher allocated equity proportions in grain marketing cooperatives. Over time, the proportion of unallocated equity increased. Overall, some results differ across grain marketing and input supply cooperatives.Practical implicationsIncreasing proportions of unallocated equity warrant a debate about the future value of ownership and governance by members of farmer cooperatives.Originality/valuePrevious empirical investigations of the capital structure compositions of cooperatives lacked a distinction between allocated and unallocated equity. Our results show that the proportions of the two equity accounts respond differently to given predictors. Furthermore, much of the prior empirical literature fails to separate cooperatives on the basis of economic activities (i.e. marketing, supply and mixed).
Journal Article