Trade-offs or synergies? Hybridity and sustainable performance of dairy cooperatives in India

Abstract

• Analyses the effect of National Dairy Plan on Indian dairy cooperatives. • Conceptualizes dairy cooperatives as hybrid organizations. • Regression analysis using 2-stage augmented inverse probability weighted estimator based on potential outcomes framework. • The performance of dairy cooperatives is affected by their hybrid characteristics. • Indian dairy cooperatives are characterized by synergetic outcomes, not trade-offs. India has come a long way in achieving milk security since it attained independence in 1947. During the 1950s India had to import about 55,000 tons of milk powder. By the year 2018–19 it had become one of the largest producers of milk in the world. The credit for this goes to the successful promotion of dairy cooperatives (DCs) in India. However, milk productivity in the country has continued to lag behind global averages. To increase milk productivity in India, the National Dairy Plan (NDP) was launched in 2011–12. Limited research appears to have been conducted on the effect of NDP on DC performance. Therefore, this article analyzes the effect of NDP on DC performance by conceptualizing DCs as hybrid organizations. However, there is limited research on how the hybrid character of cooperatives affects their performance. Regression analysis using 2-stage doubly robust, augmented inverse probability weighted (AIPW) estimator based on the potential outcomes framework on DC data collected via surveys and secondary reveals that NDP is imbibing characteristics of hybrid organizations in Indian DCs. Hybridity is statistically significant after controlling for village-level and DC-level variables. Financial hybridity is significant for four dependent variables: unit profit, quality of milk, human capability-building and community support. Autonomy, the other measure of hybridity, is significant for two dependent variables: growth of sales and unit profit. In other words, Indian DCs with hybrid characteristics actually pursue three different kinds of objectives: a) maximization of market-based logics (pursuit of self-interest, economic efficiency and profit maximization); b) maximization of community-oriented logics (pursuit of values such democracy, solidarity and autonomy); and, c) maximization of public benefit (public-sector led local economic development). The above discussion shows that Indian DCs are characterized by synergetic outcomes and not by trade-offs which contrasts with theoretical literature.