Agricultural co-operatives participating in supply chain integration in China: A qualitative comparative analysis

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. Ag...

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Published inPloS one Vol. 16; no. 4; p. e0250018
Main Authors Zhang, Jiacheng, Luo, Jianli, Li, Jia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 28.04.2021
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Agricultural cooperatives
Agricultural development
Agriculture
Agriculture, Cooperative
Biology and Life Sciences
Cold storage
Collaboration
Comparative analysis
Cooperation
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Economic aspects
Engineering and Technology
Environmental management
Environmental performance
Farm buildings
Farmers
Federations
Food
Food chains
Food supply
Industrial development
Integration
Logistics
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
People and Places
Product quality
Qualitative analysis
Sales
Social aspects
Social Sciences
Suppliers
Supply chain management
Supply chains
Sustainable development
China
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Summary: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.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0250018