A new organizational form, the new generation cooperative (NGC), emerged in the United States during the 1990s as farm producers came together to collectively add value to raw farm commodities. As compared to the traditional cooperative, the NGC facilitates a strong market orientation by...

The past three decades have seen significant advances in the field of organizational economics. By endogenizing "institutions" into their analysis, organization economists have enriched and extended the study of economic behavior. This paper explores the dynamic process of adoption of...

Our purpose in this paper is to highlight the role of organizational structure and incentives in the design of contracts between buyers and sellers of agricultural products. In particular, we consider how differences between investor-owned (IOF) and producer-oriented (POF) firms, and differences...

Since the 1990s, producers of farm commodities have been attempting to enter value-added agri-food sectors by means of joint ownership of hybrid cooperatives. New generation cooperatives, characterized by substantial supply and equity requirements, inspired much farm producer optimism before...

Since the 1990s, producers of farm commodities have been attempting to enter value-added agri-food sectors by means of joint ownership of hybrid cooperatives. New generation cooperatives, characterized by substantial supply and equity requirements, inspired much farm producer optimism before...

In recent years, concern has arisen about the structure of the international grain trade and its ability to operate in the interest of exporting or importing countries (McCalla and Schmitz). Producers and consumers question whether international market intermediaries' interests or strategies...

Hedging equity portfolios against the risk of large drawdowns is notoriously difficult and expensive. Holding, and continuously rolling, at-the-money put options on the S&P 500 is a very costly, if reliable, strategy to protect against market sell-offs. Holding ‘safe-haven' US Treasury bonds,...

This paper examines agricultural cooperative organizational models from an ownership rights perspective. Building upon property rights and incomplete contracts theories of the firm, the paper adopts a definition of ownership rights comprising both residual claim and control rights. We argue that...