{"title":"How do business associations support contract enforcement? Evidence from Hungary","authors":"Károly Mike, István Boza, Gábor Tamás Molnár","doi":"10.1111/apce.12479","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12479","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Business associations (BAs) are often mentioned among formal private-order institutions that support contract enforcement. Despite their ubiquity, evidence about their actual roles is still very limited. We explore empirically four mechanisms through which they can support the credibility of contractual commitments: member selection, norm enforcement, dispute resolution and information sharing. In a developed legal context, firm-level data from an economy-wide managerial survey show that BAs support contractual trust among members, in members by outsiders as well as in outsiders by members. Member selection and information sharing stand out as the most important mechanisms: They help all three relationship types. Dispute resolution helps overcome opportunism between members only. Formalized norm enforcement is a signal of trustworthiness for outsiders. Economic theory suggests that BAs can help establish trust beyond personal and local networks. We find strong evidence that they indeed do.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1021-1060"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/apce.12479","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142574160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An alternative organizational model for a more democratic and equitable digital economy: A systematic literature review on platform cooperativism through the lens of stakeholder theory. Competitive advantages and challenges","authors":"Pietro Ghirlanda, Vassil Kirov","doi":"10.1111/apce.12478","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12478","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Platform cooperatives, namely, businesses that sell goods or services primarily through a website, mobile app, or protocol and commit to the principles of democratic governance and shared ownership, have lately been proposed as a more sustainable, equitable and, under certain conditions, even efficient alternative to the organizational model of commercial platforms. Accordingly, they have been presented as economic institutions capable of involving all their relevant stakeholders in an extended and inclusive governance structure. Nevertheless, this emerging literature is still characterized by the lack of a holistic and analytic framework connecting the dispersed studies on the topic through the lens of stakeholder theory and detailing strategic complementarities between these different stakeholders. Related to this point, while dealing with the competitive advantages and challenges of platform cooperatives, little reference has been made to the existing debate in governance theory about the advantages and challenges of cooperative firms as compared to capitalist ones. These research gaps motivated our literature review, which is the first comprehensive systematic review specifically focused on this topic. Given the still-emerging character of the research object, our work also makes way for future updates as new contributions are gradually published.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1197-1221"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/apce.12478","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141366630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A bibliometric analysis of state-owned enterprises’ governance and performance: Trends and perspectives in the field","authors":"Ioana Andreea Ciolomic, Ioana Natalia Beleiu, Razvan Liviu Nistor","doi":"10.1111/apce.12473","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12473","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the context of recent reforms affecting the public sector, maximizing good governance and performance of state-owned enterprises is a major challenge for governments. The aim of the study is to provide a systematic and holistic review of the literature related to corporate governance and performance of state-owned enterprises, to highlight and clarify the evolutionary trajectory of the field. To achieve the research objective, 409 publications that mention the term state-owned enterprises and performance, indexed in the Web of Science database between 1997 and 2022 were analyzed by applying multiple bibliometric analysis methods and content analysis. The citation and co-citation analysis results offer an outline of the most influential articles and journals, and links between authors, and provides a thematic classification. Through keyword co-occurrence analysis, the paper highlights the research trends in the literature concerning state-owned enterprises and proposes future research directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1251-1275"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140591770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shamsuddin Ahamad, Md. Aminul Islam, Mohd Faizal bin Yusof, Hamdan Amer Al-Jaifi, Kizito Uyi Ehigiamusoe
{"title":"Relationship between microfinance institutions' self-sustainability and financing sources: Moderating role of external governance","authors":"Shamsuddin Ahamad, Md. Aminul Islam, Mohd Faizal bin Yusof, Hamdan Amer Al-Jaifi, Kizito Uyi Ehigiamusoe","doi":"10.1111/apce.12472","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12472","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The self-sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs) is a growing concern as they work as non-profit organizations to achieve global poverty reduction goals. This study aims to examine the MFIs' self-sustainability using an efficiency measurement technique based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It also determines the influence of different financing sources on MFIs' self-sustainability as well as the moderating impact of external governance on this relationship. It uses the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator to analyze the panel data from 661 MFIs in 86 countries during the 2010–2018 period. The DEA analysis reveals that MFIs are still in the intermediate stage of self-sustainability in terms of technical and cost efficiency. The second-stage regression results reveal that financing sources such as retained earnings and equity have a robust positive and statistically significant effect on the MFIs' self-sustainability, implying that MFIs that rely more on these two sources are more likely to be self-sustainable. The moderation analysis reveals that good governance accelerates the positive effect of financing sources on MFIs' efficiency. Given these empirical findings, MFIs' decision-makers can benefit from considering their own funding and equity. Quality governance can be ensured by government agencies and regulatory bodies to support the MFIs' sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"971-1001"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/apce.12472","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140591390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving dairy farmers’ welfare in Indonesia: Does cooperative membership matter?","authors":"Hery Toiba, Moh Shadiqur Rahman, Rachman Hartono, Dwi Retnoningsih","doi":"10.1111/apce.12471","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12471","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Dairy farmers in developing countries face numerous challenges, including price instability, limited credit access, outdated technology adoption, market barriers, and poverty. Cooperatives offer promising solutions to farmers’ problems and help them enhance their agricultural sustainability. Although the impact of cooperative membership has been widely investigated, little evidence is found in dairy farming households. This study estimates the impact of cooperative membership on dairy farmers’ household incomes, net returns, and profits from dairy products (processed and fresh milk). The cross-sectional data were collected from 300 dairy farmers in East Java, Indonesia. Inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment (IPWRA) and two-stage predictor substitution (2SPS) were used in the analysis to address the selection bias in the estimation. The findings are corroborated by a robustness check using propensity score matching. The results show that dairy farmers’ decisions to join a cooperative are positively and significantly influenced by farming experience, transportation ownership, number of cattle owned, and involvement in social activities and are negatively influenced by age. Cooperative membership significantly improves farmers’ welfare by increasing their household incomes, net returns, and profits from fresh milk products. However, the membership reduces profits from processed milk products. These findings suggest that the government should encourage farmers to participate actively in cooperatives.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1003-1019"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140232166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mehdi Shiva, Clare FitzGerald, Eleanor Carter, Mara Airoldi
{"title":"Beyond “make” or “buy”: Evaluating value-for-money in public service delivery","authors":"Mehdi Shiva, Clare FitzGerald, Eleanor Carter, Mara Airoldi","doi":"10.1111/apce.12468","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12468","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Outsourcing of public services is under heightened scrutiny. Public managers are asked to conduct thorough “make or buy” assessments to help assure deliverability, affordability, and value for money of public services. The naivety of this request dramatically overlooks the subtlety and challenge faced by public managers. In this paper we connect a range of differently configured contractual agreements to underlying components of “value for money”, namely, the pursuit of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. We set out a framework consisting of conceptual models and the corresponding decision tree to allow comparison across alternative sourcing strategies, considering both the associated transaction costs and <i>transaction benefits</i>. We also use simulation methods to capture uncertainty while establishing the practicality of the framework. This study advocates for moving beyond the polarized ‘make or buy’ debate with more instrumental considerations of “how to buy” from the perspective of the public manager.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1171-1196"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/apce.12468","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Equity and fairness in the location of public facilities","authors":"Monica Anna Giovanniello, Simone Tonin","doi":"10.1111/apce.12470","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12470","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We analyze the problem of fairly locating two facilities providing a public good in two spatial models: a city line and a network. Each facility is characterized not only by its location but also by its quality. We introduce new notions of envy-freeness and fairness that can be applied to spatial settings. We show that the tax scheme adopted to finance the public good has a key role in determining the existence of a spatially fair configuration of facilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1095-1120"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025166","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rebecca Hansen, Sebastian Hess, Jerker Nilsson, Petri Ollila
{"title":"The commitment of farmers to traditional and hybrid cooperatives: Empirical evidence over a six-year period","authors":"Rebecca Hansen, Sebastian Hess, Jerker Nilsson, Petri Ollila","doi":"10.1111/apce.12469","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12469","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates the commitment of farmer members to traditional and hybrid cooperatives, and examines how and why their commitment has changed over time. The empirical basis consists of three surveys of representative samples of Finnish farmers conducted in 2010, 2013 and 2016. Dairy cooperatives in Finland have a traditional organizational form. Animal breeders deliver to hybrid cooperatives that have some external investors, but farmers have the majority of the votes. In both industries, the farmers are committed to their cooperatives and increasingly so over the years. This is particularly true of dairy farmers. However, the members’ commitment is based more on their satisfaction with the cooperatives’ business activities rather than on any cohesion within the cooperative societies. One explanation for this is that primary agriculture is becoming more consolidated, with fewer but larger farms whose owners are business oriented and professional.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"949-970"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/apce.12469","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does membership in seed producer cooperatives improve smallholders’ teff productivity? A comparative analysis in North Ethiopia","authors":"Nahusenay Teamer Gebrehiwot, Tafesse W. Gezahegn, Aradom Gebrekidan Abbay, Tesfay Gebrehiwet Entehabu, Alemtsehay Tsegay Beyene, Asfafaw Haileslassie Tesfay, Kifle Tesfamariam Sebhatu","doi":"10.1111/apce.12466","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12466","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although <i>teff</i> (<i>Eragrostis tef</i>) is a very important staple food crop in Ethiopia, its production is constrained by low productivity due to poor access and adoption rate of improved seed by farmers. The government of Ethiopia envisions realizing an efficient <i>teff</i> value chain that enables a sustainable increase of smallholder <i>teff</i> productivity. As a result, the government is supporting seed producer cooperatives (SPCs) to supply improved <i>teff</i> seeds to farmers. The aim of this study is to compare <i>teff</i> productivity at household level among members and nonmembers of SPCs. To this end, a cross-sectional survey design with multi-stage sampling method was used to select 386 sample households (193 SPC members and 193 nonmembers). As membership in a cooperative is voluntary, farmers may self-select into a given SPC according to their own motivation and interest. In a bid to address the potential issue of selection bias from both observed and unobserved heterogeneities, we employ the treatment effects model (TEM), which allows for a specific correlation structure between the unobservables that affect the treatment and the unobservables that affect the potential outcomes. Results show that, on average, SPC members produce 1.406 more quintals per hectare compared with their nonmember counterparts.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 4","pages":"1121-1137"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139578060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effect of trust and social pressure on member commitment in agricultural cooperatives – Evidence from China","authors":"Jinghui Hao, Jos Bijman, Wim Heijman, Ming Gao","doi":"10.1111/apce.12467","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apce.12467","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Member commitment has an impact on the viability and success of cooperatives. While there are studies on member engagement in European and American cooperatives, empirical research on member commitment in Chinese agricultural cooperatives is rare. Using a sample of 391 farmer cooperative members in China, this study investigates the factors associated with member commitment, particularly whether trust in the cooperative leadership and social pressure at village level affect member commitment. In addition, the study explores the pathway how trust and social pressure affect member commitment by employing structural equation modelling. Our results show that both trust and social pressure are positively associated with the three components of member commitment – affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment – in a direct way. Furthermore, trust in the leadership impacts affective commitment indirectly via the mediation of member participation. These findings can be used by cooperative leaders, policy makers and rural administrators to strengthen member commitment and thereby the economic viability of agricultural cooperatives and the communities in which they are embedded.</p>","PeriodicalId":51632,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics","volume":"95 3","pages":"919-944"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139530236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}