Kontogeorgos, A, Chatzitheodoridis F, Loizou E. 2016. Adaptation Strategies for the Greek Agricultural Cooperatives during the Economic Crisis, Agricultural Economics, 62(1): 26-34 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Adaptation strategies for the Greek agricultural cooperatives during the economic crisis
Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika), 2016
Because of the Greek economic crisis, almost all businesses are facing diffi cult times with severe consequences for employment and the whole economy. Responding to the economic crisis, the companies cut off investments, wages and reduced personnel. However, the companies have to adapt their business strategies to cope with the crisis. Th is paper conducts a strategic assessment of the Greek agricultural cooperatives during the fi rst half of 2013 using in-depth interviews with cooperative executives in order to illustrate how they have responded to the crisis and also to investigate their strategic options for the upcoming period. Th e results of the analysis show that agricultural cooperatives have chosen the retrenchment and cost-cutting strategies by restraining their activities while they appear eager to export their production. In addition, the cash shortage forced them to count exclusively on their members to fi nance any new economic activity. According to the cooperatives' executives, their adaption strategies exclude abandoning the activities and selling the equipment and their real estate properties, while they involve exports, the experienced personnel and marketing investments. Th ese results could provide helpful directions not only for the agricultural cooperatives' management boards but also for the food industry businesses operating under a severe economic situation such as the present Greek economic crisis.
Indian Journal Of Agricultural Research
Background: The subject of the study in the present work was the correlation of the development of the agricultural sector with the operation of agricultural cooperatives. Considering the importance of the agricultural sector with its big and small problems, the role of agricultural cooperatives in the development of this sector is identified. As it was found from the Greek literature, the agricultural cooperatives in Greece, offered technical and material assistance to the Greek farmers, helped in the economic recovery of the local communities, helped significantly in the operation of the agricultural products market, undertook activities of utilization of agricultural production and in many cases also competed with private companies. Methods: The model chosen for the analysis is the input-output analysis method which measures the economic impact that companies have on their local economies. In this case it concerns the change of production from the various companies belonging to t...
Generic Business Strategies ib Greece: Private Food Firms versus Agricultural Cooperatives
Journal of Rural Co-operation
The purpose of this study is to identify differences in generic strategies and performance among food firms and agricultural cooperatives within the food sector in Greece. Data of 61 organizations established in the Northern part of Greece are analysed with the help of factor analysis, one-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression. The findings show that food firms and agricultural cooperatives in Greece have different preferences on generic strategies. The former group emphasizes differentiation-based strategies whereas the latter cost-based strategies. Nonetheless, both low cost and differentiation focus strategies improve organizational performance within the food sector in Greece. The empirical results highlight the discussion of generic strategies adopted by different organizations within the food sector of a European country. A central message for practitioners in Greece is that cooperatives unlike food firms sustain a more conservative attitude to traditional liking for low co...
Generic Business Strategies in Greece: Private Food Firms versus Agricultural Cooperatives
The purpose of this study is to identify differences in generic strategies and performance among organizations within the food sector in Greece. Data from a survey of 61 organizations in Northern Greece are analyzed with the help of factor analysis, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression. Factor analysis reveals the existence of four generic strategies consistent with Porter’s (1980) framework. The findings suggest that private food firms and agricultural cooperatives in Greece follow different generic strategies. Private firms emphasize differentiation-based strategies, whereas agricultural cooperatives show greater proclivity for the low-cost focus strategy. Two of the four generic strategies (the low-cost strategy and the differentiation focus strategy) improve organizational performance within the food sector for both organizational types. This is the first Greek survey on strategy contrasting private food-sector firms with agricultural cooperatives. A central message is that cooperatives, unlike private firms, sustain a more conservative attitude revealing traditional preference for low cost. The findings of this study will help practitioners and policy-makers to advance their knowledge of how organizations establish competitive advantage within the food sector of a European country.
FUNCTIONING PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES: GREEK CASE AND LESSONS FOR UKRAINE
The advantages of cooperatives functioning, as a special form of enterprises, incorporated for the purpose of more efficient production, sales and investment activities, has proven not only theoretically, but also by long-term global practices. It was proved that with the increase of the share of cooperatives in the market food prices reduce as well as a share of monopoly profit goes down [5, p.122].
New Generation Cooperatives as a Response to the Economic Crisis in Greece
International Journal of Corporate Finance and Accounting
The severe Greek economic crisis has created several financial and social challenges. The rise in unemployment had a consequence that a significant percentage of city-dwellers had to leave their homes mostly in Athens and continue their life in rural areas of Greece. Small agricultural holdings that were inherited and never utilized in the years of economic prosperity are now utilized. New business structures have emerged to tackle unemployment and the loss of income. As a result, the first new generation cooperative (NGC) named Efkarpon was established in Karditsa, Greece, in 2012. It is a vertically integrated cooperative, which uses innovation in production and processing of superfood fruits. Factor analysis and SWOT analysis are used to specify the cooperative potentials and manage members' expectations. The results reveal that the members joined in the Efkarpon mostly because they liked the innovative attributes of the effort and recognized entrepreneurial opportunities in ...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2020
Cooperation and in addition the creation of cooperatives and cooperative companies in the agricultural sector influence the effort of small farmers to survive in conditions of increased competition. Farmers are in many cases considered "small" entrepreneurs compared to their counterparts in other sectors of the economy. Therefore, the need for survival leads most of the farmers to unite in order to gain bargaining power. Agricultural cooperatives were and remain the only mechanism for gaining bargaining power of small and weak producers, which is the main reason for creating cooperatives. Due to their historical process, we can understand their role in the development of the Greek economy. Finally, the study of their problems in last year’s presents the need for the planning of a modernized cooperative model, based on the most important principles of social economy.
Potentials and Pitfalls of Contract Farming Through Agricultural Cooperatives in Greece
Revista Galega de Economía, 2018
In recent years, Greece experiences a very intensive financial crisis that -as it is expectedhasimportant effects on the primary sector. ? new form of entrepreneurship for Greece,contract farming, appeared the last years. A successful case study of contract farming inGreece is between the large enterprise “ATHENIAN BREWERY” and the producersmembersof two agricultural cooperatives of Northern Greece. The main aim of this paperis to examine the process of contract farming through agricultural cooperatives.Specifically, this paper investigates the production process of malted barley throughcontracts of members of the cooperative of Epanomi and the cooperative of Trilofos, in thePrefecture of Thessaloniki (Northern Greece) and the private firm “ATHENIAN BREWERY”.Using a structured questionnaire that it was distributed in 132 producers- members of theagricultural cooperative of Epanomi or Trilofoss it was examined the advantages and thedisadvantages of this form of cooperation for both g...
Linking Strategic Orientations with Performance Levels: A Case of Greek Agricultural Cooperatives
2016
Agricultural cooperatives (co-ops), are trying to adapt to the rapid market changes in order to remain competitive. Strategic restructuring is one fundamental weapon for market access and increasing financial indicators (Cechin et al., 2013; Salavou et al., 2013; Bijman et al., 2009). However, the serious capital constraints as well as the inefficient decision-making procedures create obstacles towards the adoption of the appropriate strategic attributes (Kalogeras et al., 2013; Karantininis et al., 2007). For this reason, the board of directors (BoD) of several agricultural coops decided to move from the traditional characteristics towards more "re-engineered" ones (Kalogeras et al., 2007; Chaddad et al., 2004). According to Salavou et al. (2013), traditional coops in Greece should change their organizational attributes and strategic orientation and move towards more reengineered models following differentiation and focus strategies in order to become more competitive. However, despite their efforts to become more flexible, their marketing approaches continue to be generally weak, with products far less differentiated than those of large, competitive, private food firms. The main objective of this paper is to extend the coop literature by examining how the organizational attributes are related with the strategic orientation, the performance and the size of the coop. We approach this question by using Porter's original model of three distinctive generic business-level strategies (low cost, differentiation and focus). Data for this study were collected from a survey conducted in 15 agricultural coops in Northern Greece in 2012. During 2011, a new legal Act (no 4015) was enforced in Greece that further permitted the re-engineering of coop attributes. The paper is divided into five major sections. After the introductory section, the research framework is presented, followed by a part for the sample and the data used in this study. The fourth section presents the analysis and the results. The final section concludes with implications for researchers and practitioners.