Social Capital Among Members in Grain Marketing Cooperatives of Different Sizes

Abstract

According to social capital theory, small cooperatives with simple business operations have more social capital in their membership than large, complex cooperatives. The geographical and social proximity among members, and between members and leadership, fosters social capital. This proposition is investigated empirically using data from member surveys in three Swedish farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives that vary greatly in size, from about 36,000 to 1600 and 150 members. The findings strongly support the view that the smaller the cooperative, the higher the social capital, expressed in terms of members' involvement, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty.

Published in

Agribusiness
2016, volume: 32, number: 1, pages: 113-126

SLU Authors

• Feng, Li

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Nilsson, Jerker

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Business Administration

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21427

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68097