Nilsson, Jerker
- Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
This article concludes that cooperative firms' choice of interfirm consolidation and collaboration strategies can be explained by two attributes, inherent in the cooperative business form, namely, risk aversion and equity capital constraints. Empirical data originate from the 15 largest EU dairy firms during a 5-year period (1998-2002). In total 198 activities are identified. They are classified into six categories: (a) mergers, (b) acquisitions, (c) strategic share holdings, (d) joint ventures, (e) licensing, and (f) general collaboration agreements. It is shown that cooperative firms prefer mergers, collaboration agreements, joint ventures, and licensing. All of these are relatively low in terms of both performance risks and relational risks, and they demand limited amounts of equity capital. Investor-owned firms focus on take-over strategies-acquisitions and share holdings. Other indicators of risk aversion are that cooperatives tend to collaborate with other cooperatives and that they prefer partners in their own home market. [EconLit: Q130; P130; L200.] (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Keywords
cooperative; alliance; strategy
Published in
Agribusiness
2007, volume: 23, number: 4, pages: 453-472
Publisher: JOHN WILEY & SONS INC
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Agricultural Science
Economics and Business
Social Sciences
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.20140
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/14963