Browsing by Subject "Farm advisory services"

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Verhaltensökonomische Aspekte in der strategischen Entwicklung von Mitgliederbeziehungen in ländlichen Genossenschaften
(2020) Jensen-Auvermann, Tessa Katharina; Doluschitz, Reiner
Due to ongoing processes of change, the frame conditions for rural cooperatives (coop) and their members are constantly changing. Change processes are of interest because they influence, among other things, the needs of people and, accordingly, business areas. The complexity of agricultural production is increasing in the course of these processes of change and, as a result, farmers have an increased need for knowledge and information in order to further develop their business. One form of organisation that supports its members, e.g. in the form of advice, is the registered association. Additionally, the competitive pressure on rural registered associations is increasing. In order to adapt to the changes in the agricultural economy, rural cooperatives make structural changes. In the course of the consolidation process in the cooperative sector, the heterogeneity of employees and members increases on the one hand and on the other hand, there can be a loss of trust between the organ company and the cooperative member. As a consequence, the commitment and loyalty of the member with regard to his or her coop may decrease. Against the background of the described transformations (pressure of adaptation and innovation from German farmers and the consolidation process in the cooperative sector) and their strategic importance for the agricultural and food sector as well as the view, that cooperative research is an application-oriented science, the present dissertation aims to answer rural coop practice-relevant questions within the framework of their membership management. Thus, a transfer of knowledge from research to practice can be enabled and a sustainable development of rural cooperatives can be promoted. Consequently, the following research questions (rq) were addressed on the basis of New Institutional Economics, behavioural economic approaches and with the help of analytical tests, such as the Mann and Whitney U-test, and regression analyses: rqi: What do members of rural cooperatives understand by the quality of service provided by their cooperative? rqii: How can relationships of trust between members and employees in rural cooperatives be shaped successfully? rqiii: What member value can cooperatives provide for the development of rural regions? The studies listed in this cumulative dissertation are increasingly based on data sets that were collected in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg using quantitative survey instruments such as written questionnaires in the period 2016 to 2017. Among others, the MemberValue model is applied. Here, the effectiveness of the specific funding mandate of the respective coop is analysed by applying it. The different samples of the studies accompanying this dissertation are composed of employees, members and leading members of community oriented and a rural coop. Employees represent a necessary factor for the fulfilment of member satisfaction and loyalty. According to the current knowledge of the author, the member-employee relationship in the latter rural coop was therefore examined in more detail for the first time. This cumulative dissertation provides new insights for the inner-organizational understanding of coop in the German-speaking area - especially with regard to soft factors such as participation, trust and satisfaction.