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SOCIAL CAPITAL, GOVERNANCE AND PERFORMANCE OF ETHIOPIAN COFFEE COOPERATIVES
Author(s) -
RUBEN Ruerd,
HERAS Jorge
Publication year - 2012
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/j.1467-8292.2012.00473.x
Subject(s) - social capital , agrarian society , corporate governance , collective action , cohesion (chemistry) , business , group cohesiveness , bridging (networking) , sample (material) , economic system , market economy , economics , political science , finance , geography , computer network , chemistry , archaeology , organic chemistry , chromatography , politics , computer science , law , agriculture
The performance of agrarian cooperatives strongly depends on the interaction between internal cohesion and external exchange. Empirical assessments of social capital and trust within cooperatives suggest that market involvement could enhance collective action. This relationship may not hold, however, under circumstances of heterogeneous membership and strong state control. We use field data from a comparative sample of 500 coffee farmers belonging to five cooperatives of Sidama Cooperative Union, Ethiopia to outline how differences in economic performance are related to the structure of social networks. We identify clear trade‐offs between bonding and bridging social capital that favour remotely located cooperatives.