WOMEN'S AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVES IN GREECE: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW AND SWOT ANALYSIS

Panagiota Sergaki (), Maria Partalidou and Olga Iakovidou
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Panagiota Sergaki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 232, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Maria Partalidou: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 232, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece
Olga Iakovidou: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics, P.O. Box 232, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), 2015, vol. 20, issue 01, 1-14

Abstract: Very few women's co-operatives exist in Europe today; of those that do, the vast majority are involved in non-agricultural sectors. For the past thirty years in Greece, numerous women's agricultural co-operatives have been established in rural areas and scholars have articulated several aspects of their role in both women's life and the local development. A cursory glance at the history of the women's agricultural co-operatives in Greece and a review of the literature highlights the uniqueness of this type of entrepreneurship (a rarity in Europe) and their significant role for rural society cohesion, mainly in geographically and economically isolated rural areas. In this paper we employ a SWOT analysis to elaborate on strengths and weaknesses, which vary from co-operative to co-operative. Either bottom-up or top-down created women's co-operatives are currently a social innovation. Their strengths mainly concern economic independence and social inclusion of women in rural areas, while their weaknesses are mainly associated with funding, organization, administration, know how, culture, product promotion and marketing problems. Nevertheless, they are called upon to survive in a competitive environment; although difficult, it is one that provides opportunities that most likely can outweigh threats.

Keywords: Women's co-operatives; SWOT; social innovation; social economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1142/S1084946715500028

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