Abstract
Agro-food supply chain integration (ASCI) plays a growingly important role in the stable and sustainable development of agriculture. However, it is challenging for core firms to integrate the small-scale and scatted farmers due to complex transaction processes and volatile relationships in China. Agricultural co-operatives are organizations that unite farmers’ power and help them achieve economic benefits. Our research focuses on ASCI from the perspective of co-operatives. A comprehensive cooperative framework, including trinity co-operatives and trinity federations, is conducted to figure out the position and process of agricultural co-operatives in ASCI, while QCA provides detailed collaborative patterns for agricultural co-operatives to adopt. Results show that agricultural co-operatives can achieve high economic and social/environmental performance when participating in ASCI. This study further completes the ASCI literature and offers many managerial and academic implications to co-operatives’ members and policy-makers.
Highlights
Agro-food supply chain integration (ASCI) plays a crucial role in the stable and sustainable development of agriculture
In qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), the necessary condition refers to the condition that must appear in all the outcomes [48, 49]
To answer the first research question (Why is it possible for agricultural co-operatives to participate in ASCI?), starting from the nature and structure of agricultural co-operatives, we prove that trinity co-operatives could complete internal integration through information
Summary
ASCI plays a crucial role in the stable and sustainable development of agriculture. Efficient ASCI can achieve high performance, such as increasing sales, ensuring food safety, improving product quality, enhancing food traceability, and reducing food corruption [1,2,3]. Traditional small-scale farmers in China have many problems, such as backward technology, scattered land, and lack of all kinds of resources [4] These problems lead to cumbersome trading processes, exorbitant trading costs, and unstable relationships in ASCI, making it more challenging for core firms to effectively integrate the small-scale and scatted farmers and control the quality of production [5,6,7]. To solve these problems, this study turned attention toward the agricultural co-operatives in China and discusses their participation in ASCI by analyzing their organizational advantages and unique features. Based on QCA, we propose six collaborative patterns for agricultural co-operatives to adopt
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