Determinants of Co-operative Patronage in Alberta |
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Authors: | Kurt K. Klein Timothy J. Richards Allan Walburger |
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Affiliation: | Professor, Department of Economics, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta.;Assistant professor, School of Agribusiness, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.;Research associate, Department of Economics, University of Eethbridge, Eethbridge, Alberta. |
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Abstract: | Co-operative managers face an increasingly heterogeneous pool of potential members. Because these members bring a variety of economic and noneconomic demands to their co-operative, managers must know how different member characteristics and performance perceptions influence their decision to patronize a co-operative. This study applies three models of co-operative patronage to survey data from rural Alberta. A Poisson regression is used to determine the factors that explain the number of co-operatives used, while an index of co-operative patronage measures the relative intensity of co-operative versus proprietary firm usage. A third model contucts a Tobit analysis of the amount of business conducted with each of several different types of co-operatives. The results show that older farmers tend to partonize more co-operatives, and larger farms do a greater share of their business with co-operatives than do smaller fiarms. Farmers who believe co-operatives offer innovative products and services are more likely to patronize them, while a belief that co-operatives should play an active role in noneconomic matters is not important. |
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