Co-operative and State Ownership in Northern Saskatchewan Under the CCF Government examines the use of social ownership as a policy instrument by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government in Northern Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1964. Led by Tommy Douglas, the new government defined numerous policy problems in the North stemming from both an economy dominated by private ownership and unstable natural resource based industries. Using two types of social ownership, crown corporations and co-operatives, the CCF sought to rectify these problems and improve the standard of living in Northern Saskatchewan. This study intends to determine whether the CCF government achieved its policy goals in Northern Saskatchewan and concludes that it accomplished its policy specific goals. Although the CCF may not have revolutionized the Northern economy, it did realize some of its policy goals in the North. <p> This study is significant because it is the first to focus solely on the program of social ownership that the CCF government implemented in the North and assess the success of the program on the CCFs terms. Moreover, this thesis offers a comprehensive review of the political origins and development of co-operatives in Northern Saskatchewan.

This dissertation explores the particular evolution of an organization, the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation, to shed light on the co-operative development process, and compares some of its complexities to the Manitoba co-operative sector. This study uses historical, political, and socio-economic research, institutional analysis, policy and legal analysis, and semi-structured interviews to better understand the co-operative development process from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. This study uncovers the importance of institutional frameworks in understanding the development of the Mondragon group. By analyzing its well-known development story through this critical and interdisciplinary lens, this dissertation helps rethink the assumptions of much of the literature on co-operative and policy development that often overlooks the study of this phenomenon. Co-operative development factors and strategies widely discussed in the literature often fail to analyze the invisible cultural assumptions that underpin and help determine the development process. By studying the extent to which Mondragon's development is deeply embedded in and shaped by its cultural, legal, and institutional contradictions, this dissertation aims to rethink the co-operative development phenomenon. This study finds that institutional frameworks are crucial to understand co-operative development choices and strategies. The contradictions and complexities of institutional frameworks create room to counter the status quo. The study of the Mondragon group tells us that co-operatives can unknowingly reproduce contradictions while challenging the dominant logic to seek change. The influence of institutional contradictions and complexities is highly important to make sense of co-operative development behaviours as well as to understand how institutions change in society. This study concludes with a comparison of the Manitoba co-operative experience in the light of the Mondragon case, and offers concluding thoughts and recommendations for the Manitoba co-operative sector.

Background: Along with the rapid economic development in China, some associatingproblems emerged, such as inflation. Especially for the daily consuming fresh fruits andvegetables (FFV), the price goes up at very fast speed, which draws a lot of publicattention on it. Farmers are discouraged and hurt by the low vegetable prices. However,end consumers are complaining about the high vegetable prices. A consensus is reachedthat the problem behind this phenomenon exists in the "distribution links".Aim: How is the current status of FFV distribution system of supermarkets in China?What factors do influence the efficiency and cost of the system? How is theimplementation of ASD in China and what are the advantages and barriers? Should it beimplemented widely? If yes, what are our recommendations to improve it?Definition: Agricultural super-docking is a new method of supply and distribution offresh agricultural products from farmers to supermarkets directly, by signing anagreement of intent between farmers and merchants, in order to build an efficientplatform for quality agricultural products to enter the supermarkets. The essence of ASDis to dock the thousands of small farmers and the different supermarkets to build anintegrated production and marketing chain to gain benefit for merchants, farmers andconsumers at the same time.Completion and results: It is a complex task to improve the efficiency of FFVdistribution system of supermarkets in China and there is a long way to go to implementASD successfully and widely since this market is at the starting stage and immature. Toimplement ASD successfully and widely, professional FFV third-party distributioncenters should be constructed, as well as exchanging information norm.

The study of retail and consumption geographies has become increasingly popular areas of research in the broader discipline of geography over the last decade. Research has covered many aspects of retailing structure and practice, including retailing formats, shopping patterns and consumer identities. However, consumer co-operatives and their members as of yet have not been studied in geography, which is interesting given their considerable presence in the retailing environment. The success of consumer co-operatives in the retailing landscape hinges on the loyalty and economic participation of their members. Their loyalty in the co-operative may in turn be influenced by their identification with the organization. This can pose both challenges and opportunities for co-operatives to succeed in the face of strong retailing competition. <p>This research is thus an attempt to examine the membership identities of co-operative members, and how this influences their consumer behaviour. To this end, self-administered questionnaires were distributed among members and non-members who patronized the Calgary Co-operative Association. They were asked about aspects of the consumer behaviour, shopping preferences, and identification with the co-operative. It was found that overall, members and non-members did not differ in their consumer behaviour. They traveled the same distances, showed the same levels of shopping loyalty at the Co-op, and had the same preferences for the ideal shopping environment. The greater difference however, lay within the membership. When members were disaggregated based on their levels of identification with the Co-op, it was found that members who more highly identified with the Co-op exhibited more loyal shopping behaviour with the Co-op, and those that had a lesser identification with the Co-op exhibited lower shopping loyalty to the Co-op. This has implications for further research on consumer identities with different retailing formats, co-operatives in other areas, and further adds to the growing body of research in geographies of retailing and consumption and co-operative studies.

This thesis, which consists of three self-contained essays, examines, both theoretically and empirically, some of the economic and identity strategies and mechanisms that federated co-operatives, in particular, and strategic alliances, in general, can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. To accomplish this objective, the thesis uses a combination of industrial organization and game theory concepts from economics, insights from social and cognitive psychology, and evidence from in-depth interviews with decision-makers in the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) - an association of 264 independent Western Canadian retail co-operatives and their wholesaler, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL).<p> Essay One combines a case study of the CRS with an examination, in a game-theoretic framework, of the co-operation and coordination problems arising among firms in alliances and the potential solutions to these problems suggested in the economics and business strategy literatures. One of the contributions of this essay is to provide examples of the mechanisms that can be used to implement these theoretical solutions in a business setting - i.e., the essay identifies practical ways for alliances to alter partner firms' payoffs, to provide private rewards, to monitor behaviour, to establish long term goals among partners, to build high group identification within the alliance, and to focus partners' expectations on the efficient outcomes. Another contribution of this essay is to identify some of the second-order co-operation problems that arise in strategic alliances - e.g., lack of incentives by alliance partners to contribute resources that are necessary to develop alliance management mechanisms - and to offer examples of the strategies that can be used to deal with these problems.<p> Essay Two draws upon social identity theory and develops an economic model of behaviour to show how the core firm in a strategic network can promote effective co-operation among network members by inducing them to identify with the network. In addition, the essay offers empirical evidence from the CRS that identity has successfully been used, together with economic mechanisms, to foster co-operation among member retails, and provides examples of the most important mechanisms that FCL, as the core firm in the CRS, has used to manage the identity of the retails. More generally, by incorporating the psychology (and sociology) of identity into an economic model of behaviour, Essay Two contributes to an emerging view that non-economic (behavioural) factors are complementary to the economic ones in the management of strategic partnerships.<p> Essay Three considers the collective action problems that arise in co-operatives when it comes to financing growth and identifies the conditions under which retained patronage can be an effective way for co-operatives to raise growth capital. The essay develops a game-theoretic model to examine the trade-off between the share of patronage refunds a co-operative wholesaler pays to member retails in cash and the share of patronage refunds it retains and invests, so as to provide retails with enough short-run benefits to encourage them to patronize their organization, while still retaining resources to invest in long-term growth. Analytical results show that when there are increasing returns in patronizing the co-operative wholesaler, retails' decisions to patronize their organization are complementary strategies and, as a result, multiple equilibria are possible. Some of these equilibria are ones with high patronage and high investment, while others are characterized by low patronage and low investment. Retails' expectations about the actions of their counterparts are critical in determining the prevailing equilibrium. The analysis also shows that the existence of the horizon problem further constraints the ability of the wholesaler to raise growth capital. Taken together, these results suggest that the retention of patronage refunds can be an effective way for the co-operative wholesaler to raise growth capital, provided it acts to focus retails' expectations on the 'good' equilibrium and to mitigate the horizon problem.<p> By examining the strategies and mechanisms that the CRS has used to achieve co-operation and coordination, and in so doing illustrating the mechanisms that firms can use to manage partner opportunism and prevent coordination failure, the thesis contributes to the alliance management literature. Firms today are increasingly forming strategic alliances with suppliers, buyers, and even competitors in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, despite their increasing popularity and value-creation potential, alliances more often fail than succeed, with alliance failure often attributed to opportunistic (non-co-operative) behaviour by one or more of the partners and to coordination failure. As a result, it is important to identify strategies and mechanisms that alliance partners can use to achieve co-operation and coordination, and thus realize the benefits from their association.<p> The thesis also contributes to the co-operative literature by shedding light on the age-old debate on whether federated co-operatives need to be centralized to ensure efficiency. In particular, the thesis shows that federated co-operatives can be efficient, provided they address the co-operation and coordination problems that arise among their members, and provides examples of the mechanisms that federated co-operatives can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. In addition, the thesis offers the first analytical treatment of how the horizon problem influences investment decisions in co-operatives.

South Korea has been evaluated as having the weakest primary care system. In South Korea, the health care delivery system is concentrated too heavily in the private sector. Increased concern on keeping one’s health and reducing the burden of health care costs led community members to gather and form health care co-operatives. Currently, 19 health care co-operatives have been established through residents’ participation and even more are preparing to be incorporated. As a nonprofit organization, a health care co-operative is a voluntarily established co-operative organization that tries to solve health, medical, and life problems in communities. This report examines how these health care co-operatives work in the health care system, whether they can be effective alternatives to a future health care system in South Korea, and finally the report provides recommendations. Given the fact that the nation already has national health insurance, health care co-operatives in South Korea mainly operate several clinics by focusing more on managing chronic diseases and increasing access to care, rather than developing affordable health care insurance or lobbying in policy sectors as they do in other countries. Health care co-operatives’ motivation is to keep people healthy; hence, they put a great deal of effort into delivering primary care and helping patients deal with chronic diseases. Health care co-operatives are encouraging because of their democratic structure. Health care co-operatives emphasize the idea that the owners of the health care co-operatives are in fact the members. The overall satisfaction of users in the current health care cooperatives is moderately high. Taking the lessons from the examples of health co-operatives in other countries, health care co-operatives should be able to function as a good complementary to the health care system. / text

A report on social consequences of neoliberal trade policies and the commodification of food, and the international efforts of small farmers to counteract the worst of these consequences. Social justice movements like fair trade and local food have emerged with the aim to expose the direct impacts on food producers. These movements co-exist while achieving their respective and mutual goals. Themes explored are: the fight against neoliberal globalization and mainstream trade, labour practices (workers' rights, fair wages, safe work environments,) sustainability (environmental practices, food security,) community and economic development and consumer awareness of aforementioned issues. Although these are global issues, close attention is paid to recent mobilization efforts in Canada and Manitoba among small food producers, farmers’ unions and related non-government organizations.

The global economy is creating profound and substantial changes for business and industries throughout the world. In the agricultural industry this is also true regarding the active consolidation of the food-value chain that is taking place at a rapid rate and on the other hand a strong component of international competitiveness is becoming a reality with multi-national role players positioning them globally. The consumer on the other hand requires a simpler and cheaper supply chain and wants to participate in the deliberations regarding the end product. In order for Senwes to be successfully positioned as an intermediary, it is evident that change is essential and unavoidable. Therefore, Senwes business platform has to be enlarged, scale of volume has to be added and trade mark has to be addressed. The literature review in this study confirmed that corporate entrepreneurship is recognised as a potential viable means of promoting and sustaining competitiveness, and transforming business and industry opportunities for value-creating innovation. The primary objective of this study is twofold: Firstly, to assess the determinants of corporate entrepreneurship and retail in an agri-business in South Africa and secondly to propose an integrated framework to facilitate the process of establishing and maintaining corporate entrepreneurship and retail within the specific agribusiness in South Africa. A comprehendsive literature overview on corporate entrepreneurship was conducted in chapter 2. In the literature review corporate entrepreneurship was defined and the necessity and fostering of corporate entrepreneurship discussed. A framework with determinants for sustainable corporate entrepreneurship was furthermore explained. The chapter was concluded with a discussion on corporate entrepreneurial strategy. A historic overview of the agricultural industry in South Africa was presented. The focus of the discussion was on the agri-business sector in South Africa with a discussion on Senwes Limited. The nature of retail was discussed in chapter 4. An overview of the nature of retail with a definition of retail was explained. The reason for the change in retail, with different types of retailers as well as a strategic model was noted and discussed. A specific focus in the chapter was given to the strategic drivers for retail success with an overview of key retail success factors. The chapter was concluded with a discussion on the future of retailing. Empirical research was conducted after the literature review. The empirical research Specific climate variable. Work discretion and Management support need development to become present. As far as the retail survey is concerned, six variables describing the theoretical dimensions of Store factor, Technology, Service factor, Merchandise/Product, Price and Segmentation/Target market were extracted. As indicated from the results the constructs Store factor, Technology and Service factor are present in the business. Merchandise/Product, Price and Segmentation/Target market need development to become present in the business. Regarding the perceived success survey is concerned three factors, Financial measures, Process measures, People development were extracted. All three factors are present in the business. . Finally, recommendations were proposed by means of an integrated framework that could assist the agri-business to establish and maintain corporate entrepreneurship and retail within the business focused on discussing the results obtained from the corporate entrepreneurial climate and retail questionnaire. Middle management and first line supervisors/staff of Senwes Village, Retail division, were selected as the sample population for this study and a 65% ratingwas achieved. Basic demographic information were dealt with first, after which the perceptions of the respondents with regard to the corporate entrepreneurial orientation and climate constructs, constructs measuring retail and perceived success of the business were discussed. Furthermore, relationships were determined between demographic variables and the constructs measured in the questionnaire. Following the detailed empirical analysis done in chapter 5, conclusions were made in chapter 6. Regarding the entrepreneurial orientation survey, five variables describing theoretical dimensions of Autonomy, Innovativeness, Risk-taking, Pro-activeness and Competitive aggressiveness were extracted. The constructs Innovativeness, Pro-activeness and Competitive aggressiveness are present in Senwes Village, Retail division. Autonomy and Risk-taking are less prevalent in Senwes Village, Retail division due to the lower average mean score that was obtained from the empirical study. In conclusion to the entrepreneurial climate survey, four variables describing theoretical dimensions of Management Support, Work discretion, Rewards/Reinforcement, Specific climate variables were extracted. The construct that is already active within the business is Rewards/Reinforcement. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The global economy is creating profound and substantial changes for business and industries throughout the world. In the agricultural industry this is also true regarding the active consolidation of the food-value chain that is taking place at a rapid rate and on the other hand a strong component of international competitiveness is becoming a reality with multi-national role players positioning them globally. The consumer on the other hand requires a simpler and cheaper supply chain and wants to participate in the deliberations regarding the end product. In order for Senwes to be successfully positioned as an intermediary, it is evident that change is essential and unavoidable. Therefore, Senwes business platform has to be enlarged, scale of volume has to be added and trade mark has to be addressed. The literature review in this study confirmed that corporate entrepreneurship is recognised as a potential viable means of promoting and sustaining competitiveness, and transforming business and industry opportunities for value-creating innovation. The primary objective of this study is twofold: Firstly, to assess the determinants of corporate entrepreneurship and retail in an agri-business in South Africa and secondly to propose an integrated framework to facilitate the process of establishing and maintaining corporate entrepreneurship and retail within the specific agribusiness in South Africa. A comprehendsive literature overview on corporate entrepreneurship was conducted in chapter 2. In the literature review corporate entrepreneurship was defined and the necessity and fostering of corporate entrepreneurship discussed. A framework with determinants for sustainable corporate entrepreneurship was furthermore explained. The chapter was concluded with a discussion on corporate entrepreneurial strategy. A historic overview of the agricultural industry in South Africa was presented. The focus of the discussion was on the agri-business sector in South Africa with a discussion on Senwes Limited. The nature of retail was discussed in chapter 4. An overview of the nature of retail with a definition of retail was explained. The reason for the change in retail, with different types of retailers as well as a strategic model was noted and discussed. A specific focus in the chapter was given to the strategic drivers for retail success with an overview of key retail success factors. The chapter was concluded with a discussion on the future of retailing. Empirical research was conducted after the literature review. The empirical research Specific climate variable. Work discretion and Management support need development to become present. As far as the retail survey is concerned, six variables describing the theoretical dimensions of Store factor, Technology, Service factor, Merchandise/Product, Price and Segmentation/Target market were extracted. As indicated from the results the constructs Store factor, Technology and Service factor are present in the business. Merchandise/Product, Price and Segmentation/Target market need development to become present in the business. Regarding the perceived success survey is concerned three factors, Financial measures, Process measures, People development were extracted. All three factors are present in the business. . Finally, recommendations were proposed by means of an integrated framework that could assist the agri-business to establish and maintain corporate entrepreneurship and retail within the business focused on discussing the results obtained from the corporate entrepreneurial climate and retail questionnaire. Middle management and first line supervisors/staff of Senwes Village, Retail division, were selected as the sample population for this study and a 65% ratingwas achieved. Basic demographic information were dealt with first, after which the perceptions of the respondents with regard to the corporate entrepreneurial orientation and climate constructs, constructs measuring retail and perceived success of the business were discussed. Furthermore, relationships were determined between demographic variables and the constructs measured in the questionnaire. Following the detailed empirical analysis done in chapter 5, conclusions were made in chapter 6. Regarding the entrepreneurial orientation survey, five variables describing theoretical dimensions of Autonomy, Innovativeness, Risk-taking, Pro-activeness and Competitive aggressiveness were extracted. The constructs Innovativeness, Pro-activeness and Competitive aggressiveness are present in Senwes Village, Retail division. Autonomy and Risk-taking are less prevalent in Senwes Village, Retail division due to the lower average mean score that was obtained from the empirical study. In conclusion to the entrepreneurial climate survey, four variables describing theoretical dimensions of Management Support, Work discretion, Rewards/Reinforcement, Specific climate variables were extracted. The construct that is already active within the business is Rewards/Reinforcement. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

A report on social consequences of neoliberal trade policies and the commodification of food, and the international efforts of small farmers to counteract the worst of these consequences. Social justice movements like fair trade and local food have emerged with the aim to expose the direct impacts on food producers. These movements co-exist while achieving their respective and mutual goals. Themes explored are: the fight against neoliberal globalization and mainstream trade, labour practices (workers' rights, fair wages, safe work environments,) sustainability (environmental practices, food security,) community and economic development and consumer awareness of aforementioned issues. Although these are global issues, close attention is paid to recent mobilization efforts in Canada and Manitoba among small food producers, farmers’ unions and related non-government organizations.