Abstract
In the 1950s and 1960s there was a debate about the nature of an agricultural cooperative: the cooperative as extension of the farm, the cooperative as vertical integration or the cooperative as a firm. We revisit this debate with various concepts from the theory of the firm that have been formulated since 1990. Two concepts shed light on this debate: the enterprise as a system of attributes and the delineation of a governance structure in terms of ownership rights, control rights and income rights. We argue that viewing the cooperative as a system of attributes integrates these three views. It emphasizes that a cooperative is a firm in itself, with many input suppliers as owners. The feature of many input suppliers as owners implies that the behavioral differences between a cooperative and an investor owned firm have to be addressed by highlighting the unique aspects of the stakeholder owning the enterprise.
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© 2008 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg
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Feng, L., Hendrikse, G. (2008). On the Nature of a Cooperative: A System of Attributes Perspective. In: Hendrikse, G., Tuunanen, M., Windsperger, J., Cliquet, G. (eds) Strategy and Governance of Networks. Contributions to Management Science. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2058-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2058-4_2
Publisher Name: Physica-Verlag HD
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-2057-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-7908-2058-4
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