Why Do Agricultural Cooperative Mergers Not Cross the Finishing Line?

Elena Meliá-Martí, Natalia Lajara-Camilleri, Ana Martínez-García and Juan F. Juliá-Igual
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Elena Meliá-Martí: Centro de Investigación en Gestión de Empresas, CEGEA, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46071 Valencia, Spain
Natalia Lajara-Camilleri: Centro de Investigación en Gestión de Empresas, CEGEA, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46071 Valencia, Spain
Ana Martínez-García: ALIMER, Alimentos del Mediterráneo, 30815 Murcia, Spain
Juan F. Juliá-Igual: Centro de Investigación en Gestión de Empresas, CEGEA, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46071 Valencia, Spain

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: Mergers have played a relevant role in the business development of many agri-food cooperatives and have led to the consolidation of large cooperative groups which are leaders in their respective business sectors. However, many of the merger processes undertaken fail: some are aborted at the negotiation stage, and others are not approved by members. These failures entail financial and social costs due to frustrated expectations and the time invested in the negotiation process. The objective of this paper is to establish the economic, socio-cultural, organisational and process management factors that underlie this outcome. A survey was conducted among the directors and administrators of a sample of Spanish agri-food cooperatives that had participated in merger processes which were aborted at the negotiation stage or were not approved by their members. Factor and discriminant analyses established the aspects which had the greatest impact on the failure of the merger processes. Far from being economic factors, these analyses reveal that defensive localisms, a lack of commitment to the merger on the part of members and directors, and communication failures were more significant.

Keywords: mergers; agri-food cooperatives; failure; integration; approval; negotiations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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