Development Of Apple-grower Cooperative

China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of apples, which has an importantposition in apple production and trade in the world, and two advantageous producingbelts——Bohai Bay belt and Loess Plateau belt——have been formed nationwide. However,the low level of organization and the outmoded organization way in apple industry haverestricted its sustainable development. The number of apple-grower cooperative organizationhas kept a fast growth since2007, but it doesn’t have a synchronous improvement in essence.What we should pay more attention is that there is an “inverse organized” problem existing inapple-grower cooperative organizations. That is, the behavior of the drop-out amongapple-growers has become a “special” phenomenon rather than an “individual” phenomenon,of which is an important topic being worthy of attention and making a research. Butunfortunately, the theoretical exploration and empirical research about the drop-out ofapple-growers at present are relatively insufficient. Therefore, this article is focused on thedrop-out problem. And on the basis of literature review, we take advantage of the transactioncosts theory, property right theory and stakeholder theory to form the framework of this studyand then analysize the reason of the drop-out and its influencing factors to reveal its internalmechanism. On that basis, we comprehensively use the classical econometric model and thecase analysis based on the different developmental level of apple-growers cooperationorganization to empirically test the mechanism of action that how the behavior of drop-outinfluences the development of the apple-growers cooperative organization.According to the research approach of “theoretical analysis-econometric test-caseanalysis”, the main content of this paper is designed for the following three parts:The first part is an introduction, including the first chapter. This part is centered on theapple-growers cooperative organization, especially the development of the organization inadvantageous area of Bohai Bay. In this part, we elaborate the background, the purpose andthe significance of this paper. Based on the relevant study of both domestic and foreigncountries, it summarizes the main achievements of the research available from the aspects of the theory of farmers’ cooperative organization, the development of farmers’ professionalcooperative organization, and the study on the farmers’ behavior, from which we extract thepoint of penetration about studying the development of apple-growers cooperativeorganization. In addition, this part also introduces the main study methods and the contents,the technical route, the data sources, the design of questionnaire, and also the innovations andshortcomings existing in this paper.The second part is the analysis about the developmental theory of apple-growerscooperative organization, including the second chapter. The evolutionary route of the theoryin this section is as follows: according to the mode of step by step, this part is based on thetheory of organizational development, the theory of apple-growers cooperative organization,and the theory of drop-out among apple-growers to have a comprehensive analysis and todefine the origin of the key variables and its theories. That is through the analysis of thegenerative mechanism about the organizational development theory to make it clear that whyfarmers’ professional cooperative organizations exist, and then extracting the typicality andthe features of apple-growers cooperation organization in Bohai Bay area with the help of theapple-growers cooperative organization theory. Finally, this part systematically integrates andpresents the kinds and the theoretical definition about the forms of drop-out amongapple-growers on the basis of the practice of apple-growers cooperative organization in BohaiBay area.The main purpose, in short, of this part is to use the relevant theory to study thecorrelation among different variables and then gradually define the theoretical category of thetypical concept clearly in this paper.The third part is an empirical test about the causes of the drop-out, the influence factorsand the action of mechanism to the development of apple-growers cooperative organization,covering the third chapter, the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter. In the third chapter, we usethe principle of transaction cost theory under the hypothesis of “bounded rationality” toanalysize the possible causes of the drop-out; And then we establish a mathematical modelbased on the optimal control theory in order to explore the reason of the drop-out, from whichsix deductions and six hypotheses about this phenomenon are put forward; According to theresearch hypotheses, by using the samples of367drop-out apple-growers in Bohai Bay area,we adopt Weibull model—a method to estimate the parameters by random regression—to testthe correctness of six hypotheses. In the fourth chapter, we utilize the property right theoryand stakeholder theory, combining with three factors—apple-growers, cooperativeorganizations and the external environmental factors, to analysize the concrete impact on thedifferent forms of drop-out among apple-growers, according to which we also put up with theresearch assumptions of influencing factors; In view of the research hypotheses, this chapter takes advantage of the tracking data about354drop-out apple-growers in cooperativeorganization of Bohai Bay area to make a multivariate Logit analysis, binary Logit analysisand empirical test about the factors influencing the forms of drop-out. In the fifth chapter, wehave a deep insight into the mechanism that how the behavior of drop-out effects thedevelopment of cooperative organization by case study, especially by the multi-cases study.And in this chapter, the perspective is further enlarged to the interactions between thedrop-out and the development of the whole apple-growers cooperative organization.The conclusions of the study as follows:（1） Based on the empirical analysis about the causes of the drop-out, the viewpointsand the conclusions are as follows: First of all, when the Market-oriented governance modelis superior to the cooperative governance model, the duration after apple-growers joining inthe cooperative organization will decrease as the maximum profits increasing, which will leadto growers getting away from it. Secondly, when the heterogeneity of apple-growers isstrongly unequal, the higher the productivity is before they joining in, the shorter the durationis, and that will also result in the drop-out. Thirdly, under the condition of high tradingfrequency, if the evaluation about the level of production from the external market is higher,it’s less likely to result in the drop-out. Fourly, if the uncertainty of the transaction costs facedby the apple-growers is higher when they enter the organization, the duration will be shorter,of which would lead to the drop-out in turn.（2）Based on the apple-growers, the cooperative organization and the externalenvironmental factors, we attain the following viewpoints by the empirical analysis about thedrop-out: First of all，the active drop-out, the passive drop-out, the blind drop-out and thehidden drop-out are four main forms performed by apple-growers at present inChina. Secondly，the cooperative members’ self-factor has a significant influence onapple-growers’ different quit ways. Thirdly，factors of cooperatives effect has a significantinfluence on apple-growers’ different drop-out ways. Fourthly， factors from externalenvironment has a significant influence on the way farmers chose to quit.（3）Based on the multi-case study, this article studies the relationship between thedrop-out and the development of cooperative organization, from which we obtain thefollowing viewpoints and the conclusions: apple-growers’ drop-out behaviors have a dilutioneffect on the cohesion of cooperative organization’s development; apple-growers’ drop-outbehaviors is the normal phenomenon during the development of a high level of cooperationorganization; apple-growers’ drop-out behaviors have a negative impact on the reputationof cooperative organization; apple-growers’ drop-out behaviors leads to the decreaseof government support policy efficiency. On the baisis of above conclusions, from the perspective of preventing apple-growers’drop-out behaviors, targeting both theory and practice aspects, the paper puts forward fourcountermeasures and suggestions from four levels such as the overall, the apple-growers’drop-out behaviors reasons, the apple-growers’ drop-out affecting factors and theorganizational development in order to form the sustainable development mechanisam ofcooperative in the future.