This article briefly reviews the increased interest in new cooperative development, factors for successful cooperative development, and strategies to improve the performance of new and emerging cooperatives. The article highlights issues identified by a panel of cooperative leaders, USDA...

Three aspects of property rights theory are particularly relevant to the conversion of the walnut-marketing cooperative, Diamond Walnut Growers (DWG), into a publicly traded stockholder-owned corporation. The horizon problem became apparent when DWG began investing heavily in branded,...

Values-based supply chains (VBSCs) have emerged as a structure to enhance the viability of mid-scale farms while preserving jobs and rural economies. They involve partnerships between producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and food service operators who share environmental, economic,...

Few agricultural marketing cooperatives have nationally prominent brand names. Instead, they tend to concentrate in commodity-oriented markets, which can be attributed to the cooperative principles—user-benefit, user-financed and user-control. However, these structural disadvantages can be...

This study researches the validity of claims that cooperatives are destroying value by comparing the financial performance of agricultural cooperatives with investor-owned firms in four sectors--dairy, farm supply, fruit and vegetable, and grain. Traditional financial ratios measuring...