Understanding the board of Swedish farmer cooperatives - Cases focusing on board composition and interaction patterns

Abstract

This study gathered and examined empirical evidence concerning the extent to which the performance of cooperatives is related to board composition and interaction patterns - more specifically board size, number of external directors, director tenure and attitudes, frequency of board meetings, education of directors, and degree of consensus between the board and the chief executive officer (CEO). Theories of corporate governance provided propositions that were used as a starting-point for interviews held with board chairmen in thirteen Swedish agricultural cooperatives. The results show that cooperatives benefit from larger boards than suggested by most governance literature. External directors do not improve the overall performance, but having welle-ducated directors and CEOs who recognize the specificities of cooperative governance are crucial.

Keywords

Cooperative; Board; CEO; Corporate governance; IOF

Published in

Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management
2018, volume: 6, number: 2, pages: 45-52

SLU Authors

• Hakelius, Karin

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Business Administration

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2018.06.001

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96254