Agricultural producer cooperatives as strategic alliances

Abstract

In this paper we examine the linkages between four bodies of business-to-business relationship theory (transaction cost analysis, the resource-based theory of the firm (RBV), social network theory and theories of trust and cooperation) to the design and governance of agricultural cooperatives. Defining a cooperative broadly as any type of alliance formed by producers for their mutual benefit, we base the discussion on three types of cooperative; traditional, "new generation" and learning networks. Our main focus is on cooperatives as an alliance between members, but we also discuss alliances between cooperatives. We find that there is a gap in the literature relating to the analysis of allia..