Research On Interest Mechanism, Members' Cooperative Behavior And Organizational Performance Of Farmer Specialized Cooperative

With the deepening of agricultural internationalization and marketization, the conflict among farmers'small-scale production resulting from decentralized management, socialized production and domestic and international market is being acute increasingly. Under new market situation, the development of farmer specialized cooperative is not only the urgent need for agricultural modernization and new socialist countryside construction, but also a fundamental strategy for improving the international competitiveness of China's agriculture and resolving the problems regarding agriculture, rural areas and farmers. However, after nearly 30 years of development, farmer cooperatives in China can't effectively exert organization advantages and economic function, still pacing up and down at a relatively low level. It's hard to establish the related institutional arrangement and operating mechanism which can reflect essential characteristics and self-development needs of farmer cooperatives. Ordinary members'low enthusiasm and extent of participating in cooperation has long troubled the development of the cooperative.Economic interest is the ultimate or direct goal of all economic activities. Farmer specialized cooperative is an organization united voluntarily by its members, the motivation and goal of which is to increase the interest of various participants through cooperation. Therefore, establishing and improving fair and reasonable interest mechanism is very important for the development of cooperative. Since the present research lacks systematic analysis of the formation and operating results of interest mechanism of the farmer specialized cooperatives in China, this paper takes the development of farmer specialized cooperatives in Jiangsu province as example based on realistic development background of the cooperative in China after Legislation, and uses the concerned theories of new institutional economics, establishes general analytical framework which indicates the relations among the cooperative's institutional arrangement, interest mechanism, members' behaviors and the performance of organization. Through the questionnaire survey, typical survey and statistics and quantitative analysis, empirical analysis of present situation and influence factors of interest mechanism of farmer specialized cooperative in China, and their influence on members'cooperative behaviors and organizational performance is made. From the point of view of motivation of members' behavior and improvement of organizational performance, the paper systematically analyzes the internal and external factors which influence the improvement of farmer specialized cooperative in China, and puts forward corresponding policy and recommendations according to research conclusion.This paper consists of nine chapters, and the main contents and conclusion are as follows:Part one is on the improvement of farmer specialized cooperative in China after legislation and the present status of interest mechanism.Through the literature review and statistical analysis of questionnaire survey data of farmer specialized cooperatives in Jiangsu province, we find that although the number of the cooperative grows rapidly, and business fields and service function are further expanded, but problem in the development is still outstanding, such as equity concentration, weak democratic management mechanism, unsound surplus distribution system according to the amount of transaction, and some cooperatives'capabilities of self-development and increasing farmers'income are still very weak.Part two is empirical analysis of the influencing factors of interest mechanism of farmer specialized cooperative.Based on questionnaire survey data of 205 farmer specialized cooperatives in Jiangsu province, and logistic model and multivariate linear regression model and the empirical research on internal and external factors which affect interest mechanism of farmer specialized cooperative is made. We find that formation of surplus distribution system according to the amount of transaction is mainly influenced by the homogeneity of its members, property right structure of members'extensive holdings and the influence of democratic governance mechanism. The less members, the more perfect democratic election, democratic decision-making, democratic supervision mechanism, the higher the ratio of surplus distribution according to the amount of transaction. And the supportive policy and financial supervision from the government play a positive role in surplus distribution and establishment of price protection and preferential mechanism. But government policy doesn't have significant influence on the establishment of surplus distribution system. External social economic and market competition environment and the rewards for leaders of cooperative from government can't create obvious influence on the formation of interest mechanism. The further expanding of service function of the cooperative to the prenatal and postnatal areas had a positive effect on the improvement of interest mechanism.Part three is on the empirical analysis on members'willingness to cooperate and its relative influencing factors.By using analysis frame of members' willingness, behavior to cooperate and its influencing factors, which is based on theory of planned behavior, and survey data of 243 household members of 30 cooperatives in Jiangsu province, and adopting orderly probit model, this paper presents a thorough study on members'willingness to expand production scale, become a shareholder or increase shares and remain stable trade relationship with cooperatives, participate in cooperative management and affairs, also the willingness to exit cooperative, and the relative influencing factors. The results of the study show that members'willingness to cooperate is not strong in China; most members lack enthusiasm for participating in management and investing in the cooperatives; nearly a quarter of the members don't have a stable trade relationship with cooperatives. Many factors have significant effect on members' willingness to cooperate, such as the members'cooperative cognition, benefit from cooperation, and their confidence in the management, Institutional arrangement of the cooperative, interest mechanism, and the difference in Individual factors and organization role in cooperative and household operation. But different factors have different influence scope, and various interest and benefits from the cooperatives are the most direct and fundamental factors which can affect members' cooperative willingness and behavior.The cooperative institutional arrangement and interest mechanism is the key factor which affects members'behavior and willingness to cooperation. The interest mechanism that surplus is distributed according to the amount of transaction, has significant positive effect on the members'willingness to enlarge production scale, buy a share and participate in cooperative's management and affairs. Cooperatives' democratic decision-making and management system also have a significant positive impact on the members'willingness to participate in the management and affairs and exit cooperative.The cooperative member's willingness to enlarge production scale and maintain transaction is very significantly influenced by the system of member's stake. Members' individual accounts set by the cooperative have significant positive effect on members' willingness to participate in the management and exit cooperative, and the cooperative's system for member's exiting has a significant impact on the member's willingness to enlarge scale and exit the cooperative. In addition, member's awareness of the cooperative system and their confidence in the management of cooperatives has significant and positive influence on member's willingness to cooperate and behavior.Part four is on the analysis of relationship among institutional arrangement of farmer specialized cooperatives, interest mechanism, cooperative behavior between cooperative and member, and the organizational performance.On the basis of questionnaire survey data of 205 farmers' professional cooperatives in Jiangsu province and structural equation analysis model, empirical analysis of the Institutional arrangement, interest mechanism and members'behavior and their influence on organizational performance is made. The results show that property right and governance structure are the main and fundamental factors which affect the formation and operation of the interest mechanism; the interest mechanism is the main and direct factor that determines and influences the members'cooperative behavior, which to a greater extent, not only influences and restricts the incentive effects of ownership and governance structure on cooperative behavior, but also has an important influence on organizational performance of cooperative; member's cooperative behavior is the direct and main factor that influences the organizational performance. To a large extent, cooperative institutional arrangements and interests of mechanism affects organizational performance through members'cooperative behavior.In short, the important condition and infrastructure of interest mechanism, which is dominated by the principle that surplus distributed according to the amount of transaction, is the property right arrangement of members'extensive holdings, and governance mechanism of democratic participation. Property right arrangement, governance structure and interest mechanism are interrelated and restrained each other, which jointly determine members' cooperative behavior and performance of the cooperative.