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WHY FARMERS INVOLVE THEMSELVES IN CO‐OPERATIVE DISTRICT COUNCILS
Author(s) -
MORFI Chrysoula,
NILSSON Jerker,
ÖSTERBERG Hanna
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/apce.12206
Subject(s) - conviction , hierarchy , incentive , corporate governance , order (exchange) , business , compensation (psychology) , work (physics) , agriculture , public relations , public administration , political science , finance , economics , law , psychology , social psychology , mechanical engineering , ecology , biology , microeconomics , engineering
This study finds that selective incentives induce district council members and chairpersons to work for the collective best of a co‐operative membership. Being the lowest echelon of a co‐operative's internal governance hierarchy, district councils constitute a link between the membership and the board of directors. Previous research indicates that district council members are often driven by a co‐operative conviction and social concerns. The present study challenges this view. On the basis of a survey of all 191 district council members and council chairpersons of a large Swedish agricultural co‐operative, it is found that the elected representatives rank low in terms of co‐operative conviction and social concerns. They involve themselves mainly in order to get personal benefits; they want to gain access to information, mature personally and obtain inputs to develop their farm enterprises. The financial compensation is of limited importance.