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Social Capital among Members in Grain Marketing Cooperatives of Different Sizes
Author(s) -
Feng Li,
Friis Anna,
Nilsson Jerker
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
agribusiness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1520-6297
pISSN - 0742-4477
DOI - 10.1002/agr.21427
Subject(s) - social capital , loyalty , marketing , business , proposition , individual capital , capital (architecture) , economics , economic capital , human capital , economic growth , sociology , geography , social science , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology
According to social capital theory, small cooperatives with simple business operations have more social capital in their membership than large, complex cooperatives. The geographical and social proximity among members, and between members and leadership, fosters social capital. This proposition is investigated empirically using data from member surveys in three Swedish farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives that vary greatly in size, from about 36,000 to 1,600 and 150 members. The findings strongly support the view that the smaller the cooperative, the higher the social capital, expressed in terms of members’ involvement, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty.