Drivers of joint cropland management strategies in agri-food cooperatives

PIÑEIRO, VERÓNICA; MARTINEZ-GOMEZ, VICTOR; MELIA-MARTÍ, ELENA; GARCIA-ALVAREZ-COQUE, JOSE-MARIA

Journal of Rural Studies

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021 vol. 84 p. 162 - 173

0743-0167

In several Spanish regions, collective action through production and marketing cooperatives has traditionally concentrated the food supply of small and medium-sized farms. However, many cooperatives are threatened by the risk of abandonment of members´ cropland, which reduces their sourcing capacity. In this context, joint cropland management initiatives have become a useful form of social and organizational innovation. This research´s contribution is twofold: it examines the relevance of some drivers of this organizational innovation, and it determines the cooperative characteristics or combinations of characteristics that can sufficiently explain the adoption of a joint cropland management strategy. Some cooperatives´ features have been a priori identified as related to the achievement of joint cropland initiatives: economic size, social innovation, innovative behavior, and collaborative orientation. The study is mainly based on data from a cooperatives survey, and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methodology has been used. The analysis has been completed by surveying cooperatives´ managers about their opinions on a joint cropland management strategy´s main advantages and drivers. Results indicate that social and economic innovation, size, and propensity to cooperate with other cooperatives are key factors that help create a cooperative profile capable of tackling the challenge of land abandonment and the consequent loss of production.