Members' Perception of Their Participation in the Governance of Cooperatives: The Key to Trust and Commitment in Agricultural Cooperatives

This study explores the extent to which members' assessment of their cooperatives' degree of success is related to various member attributes, notably the members' perception of their participation in the governance of the cooperatives. Three categories of member attributes are identified: satisfaction with the profitability of farm operations, age of the member, and experience from board work. The cooperatives' degree of success is measured as members' commitment towards cooperatives, and members' trust in the board of directors. The data originate from a mail Survey among 2,250 Swedish farmers. The results indicate differences in members' commitment and their trust towards directors to be due to farm profitability, the members' age and experience as directors. After adding members' perception of their participation in the governance as a covariate, most of the other differences are explained by this variable. Age is still partly associated with trust towards directors; older farmers have less trust. [EconLit Classifications: Q13, D23, D72]. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.