The agricultural co-operative system in the Valencian Community is a consolidated economic reality and a basic referent at a national level. Nowadays, the agricultural co-operative system in general, and the fruits and vegetables co-ops in particular, become a main element either in the market...

The aim of this work is to explore the patterns of corporate governance in agricultural co-operative firms, where the suppliers are also the company owners. We raise the question of how they control management and what are the factors which limit managers’ actions to achieve the objectives of...

In this eminently empirical paper, of an exploratory and descriptive nature, a package of indicators is proposed by which to measure the performance of an agricultural co-operative, based on which we try to find out the degree of importance accorded or which should be accorded to these...

This paper analyses the fit between business strategy and human resources strategy, and its implications and effect on performance. A sample of 121 Andalusian co-operatives (small and medium sized firms) is used to evaluate the hypothesis through a questionnaire. Our findings reveal some support...

This study analyses the role played by management in Brazilian agricultural co-operatives in terms of how their objectives and their governance are focused. The analysis explores ways of running agricultural co-operatives, comparing traditional co-operatives, which focus on the economic side,...

The paper investigates whether the co-operative format influences the competitive advantages of companies adopting it. To accomplish this, we have carried out an empirical analysis focusing on retail pharmacy companies operating in 10 provinces of central and southern Spain. The results show...

In this study we endeavour to expose the falseness of a certain sense of underlying inferiority in the company model advocated by the social economy. We will do so by describing and analysing certain “recent” management trends whose origins run from the end of the Second World War to the...

From a compared institutional analysis, the institutional characteristics and problems of agency are defined in different types of firms. There follows an examination of the interdependence and circularity of the problem of agency in labour managed firms, and the problems of control which occur...

In recent decades, the world economy has undergone a profound process of transformation which has speeded up since the mid-1990s because of the massive implementation of the Internet and the consequent facilitation of trade between agents and regions. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the...

The subject of development cooperation occupies a special place in the framework of the new technologies and the social economy as it involves societies at different socio-economic levels which respond very differently to the adoption and assimilation of innovations. This study focuses on new...