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TOWARDS AN AGRICULTURAL CO‐OPERATIVE CLASSIFICATION
Author(s) -
Murray Gordon C.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1983.tb00985.x
Subject(s) - capital (architecture) , agriculture , government (linguistics) , business , function (biology) , economics , finance , history , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , evolutionary biology , biology
In 1981 Agricultural Co‐operatives in the UK had total sales of £1.9 billion yet the behaviour of firms entitled ‘co‐operative’ remains little understood. The paper presents a system for classifying agricultural co‐operatives based on their financial structure and the means by which corporate financing is pursued. It is argued that differing co‐operatives, irrespective of their function, adopt quite separate and distinct capitalisation philosophies. Two basic types of co‐operative are identified—Capital Accumulative Co‐operatives and Capital Specific Co‐operatives. The latter type can be sub‐divided into Capital Extensive Co‐operatives and Capital Intensive Co‐operatives depending on the level of assets and finance controlled by the organisation. The paper details a number of organisational and operational differences between the co‐operative types and suggests that these have important implications where co‐operatives become instruments of Government policy.