 AN EXAMINATION OF NEW GENERATION COOPERATIVES IN THE UPPER MIDWEST: SUCCESSES, FAILURES, AND LIMITATIONSJasper Grashuis and Michael Cook Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 2018, vol. 89, issue 4, 623-644 Abstract: A new organizational form, the new generation cooperative (NGC), emerged in the United States during the 1990s as farm producers came together to collectively add value to raw farm commodities. As compared to the traditional cooperative, the NGC facilitates a strong market orientation by defining membership and requiring high supply and equity capital commitments. Approximately 100 such value‐added ventures formed during a period called ‘cooperative fever’, but public and producer interest dissipated in the 2000s. With secondary data collected from print media publications, we conclude that many of the original NGCs exited by means of bankruptcy or liquidation because of challenges common to most business organizations. However, other failures and conversions of large, successful NGCs also indicate an inherent equity and liquidity constraint, suggesting a limited ability of the organizational form to drive complex and capital‐intensive value‐added ventures. We conclude by raising possible conditions for the future viability of producer‐owned business organizations in the value‐added agri‐food industry. Date: 2018 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:annpce:v:89:y:2018:i:4:p:623-644 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics is currently edited by Marco Marini More articles in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics from Wiley Blackwell |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.