IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trn/utwpeu/1229.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cooperatives: A Development Strategy? An Analysis of Argan Oil Cooperatives in Southwest Morocco

Author

Listed:
  • Zahir Dossa

Abstract

Cooperatives, as both a strategy and an organizational form, often enable underprivileged individuals to collectively compete in a market through joint-ownership agreements and democratic decision-making. While cooperatives are promoted as social enterprises for their labour-centric emphasis, we also know that many fail due to a variety of factors including a lack of accountability, low wages, and difficulty competing in high-end markets. This paper assesses the model employed by argan oil cooperatives in southwest Morocco. Female-based cooperatives have been supported by donor organizations and development practitioners to promote environmental conservation of argan forests, foster social equity in the patriarchal society, and improve the local economy. The study reveals that through donor funding and the development of associations to commercialize cooperative products, the cooperative model in Morocco has been largely successful. The rapid growth the cooperative movement has been able to achieve in the argan oil sector has stimulated social, economic, and environmental development. However, the findings suggest that these successes have resulted from cooperatives failing to meet basic tenets of cooperative organizations. This outcome can be attributed to the initial set of stakeholder priorities and local contexts. Due to the mixed results, one of the questions raised in this paper is whether the cooperative model should be viewed as a success or failure. Although defending the argan oil cooperative model as a successful development strategy, the author proposes a new model that incorporates Internet-based strategies to further the cooperative movement. Established as an action research engagement, The Argan Tree is an argan oil cooperative that espouses value chain transparency and accountability through e-commerce. This innovative model has the potential to overcome setbacks that plague many cooperative models including: inequitable profit distribution to members, a lack of member awareness and participation in decisionmaking processes, and excessive profit margins captured by retailers. A pilot study conducted in 2010 suggests that Internet-based strategies can shift the development paradigm of cooperatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Zahir Dossa, 2012. "Cooperatives: A Development Strategy? An Analysis of Argan Oil Cooperatives in Southwest Morocco," Euricse Working Papers 1229, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
  • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpeu:1229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.euricse.eu/publications/wp-2912-cooperatives-a-development-strategy-an-analysis-of-argan-oil-cooperatives-in-southwest-morocco/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence E. Haller, 1992. "Branded Product Marketing Strategies in the Cottage Cheese Market: Cooperative versus Proprietary Firms," Food Marketing Policy Center Research Reports 016, University of Connecticut, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Charles J. Zwick Center for Food and Resource Policy.
    2. Manuel Núñez‐Nickel & José Moyano‐Fuentes, 2004. "Ownership Structure of Cooperatives as an Environmental Buffer," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1131-1152, November.
    3. Zoubida Charrouf & Dom Guillaume, 2009. "Sustainable Development in Northern Africa: The Argan Forest Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 1(4), pages 1-11, November.
    4. Haller, Lawrence E., 1992. "Branded Product Marketing Strategies in the Cottage Cheese Market: Cooperative versus Proprietary Firms," Research Reports 25208, University of Connecticut, Food Marketing Policy Center.
    5. Taylor, Peter Leigh, 2005. "In the Market But Not of It: Fair Trade Coffee and Forest Stewardship Council Certification as Market-Based Social Change," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 129-147, January.
    6. Ortmann, Gerald F. & King, Robert P., 2007. "Agricultural Cooperatives I: History, Theory and Problems," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 46(01), pages 1-29, March.
    7. H. Christopher Peterson & Bruce L. Anderson, 1996. "Cooperative strategy: Theory and practice," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 371-383.
    8. Lybbert, Travis J. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Narjisse, Hamid, 2002. "Market-based conservation and local benefits: the case of argan oil in Morocco," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 125-144, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sexton, Richard J. & Iskow, Julie, 1993. "What Do We Know About the Economic Efficiency of Cooperatives: An Evaluative Survey," Journal of Agricultural Cooperation, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, vol. 8, pages 1-13.
    2. Rogers, Richard T., 1990. "The Role of Marketing Cooperatives in Increasingly Concentrated Agricultural Markets: Reaction," Cooperatives: Their Importance in the Future Food and Agricultural System - FAMC 1990 Conference 265917, Food and Agricultural Marketing Consortium (FAMC).
    3. Giuliani, Elisa & Ciravegna, Luciano & Vezzulli, Andrea & Kilian, Bernard, 2017. "Decoupling Standards from Practice: The Impact of In-House Certifications on Coffee Farms’ Environmental and Social Conduct," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 294-314.
    4. Kachel, Yael & Finkelshtain, Israel, 2010. "A Comparative Analysis of Antitrust Regulations in the Agricultural Sector in Israel, the US and the EU," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 38(01), pages 1-35.
    5. Kachel, Yael & Finkelsthain, Israel, 2009. "Antitrust Legislation and Cooperation in Fish Marketing," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 37(2), pages 1-23.
    6. A. Arrighetti, 2007. "Fair trade, premio di prezzo e fallimenti del mercato," Economics Department Working Papers 2007-EP06, Department of Economics, Parma University (Italy).
    7. Erika Ribašauskienė & Diana Šumylė & Artiom Volkov & Tomas Baležentis & Dalia Streimikiene & Mangirdas Morkunas, 2019. "Evaluating Public Policy Support for Agricultural Cooperatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-15, July.
    8. Evans, Lewis & Meade, Richard, 2005. "The Role and Significance of Cooperatives in New Zealand Agriculture, A Comparative Institutional Analysis," Working Paper Series 3847, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    9. Olga Malets, 2017. "Recursivity by Organizational Design: The Case of the Forest Stewardship Council," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8(3), pages 343-352, September.
    10. Bartley Tim, 2010. "Transnational Private Regulation in Practice: The Limits of Forest and Labor Standards Certification in Indonesia," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-36, October.
    11. Anne Musson & Damien Rousselière, 2020. "Exploring the effect of crisis on cooperatives: a Bayesian performance analysis of French craftsmen cooperatives," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(25), pages 2657-2678, May.
    12. Brusselaers, Jan & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido & Buysse, Jeroen, 2017. "Green Public Procurement of Certified Wood: Spatial Leverage Effect and Welfare Implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 91-102.
    13. Alessandro Arrighetti, 2009. "Market Imperfections and Fair Trade," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 1, March.
    14. Nurudeen Afolabi Sofoluwe, 2020. "Relevance of Entrepreneurial Orientation Strategy to Cooperative Business Organizations in Nigeria," Business & Management Compass, University of Economics Varna, issue 4, pages 415-429.
    15. El Houssain Bouichou & Tahirou Abdoulaye & Khalil Allali & Abdelghani Bouayad & Aziz Fadlaoui, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Intention among Rural Youth in Moroccan Agricultural Cooperatives: The Future of Rural Entrepreneurship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-20, August.
    16. Evans, Lewis & Meade, Richard, 2005. "The Role and Significance of Cooperatives in New Zealand Agriculture, A Comparative Institutional Analysis," Working Paper Series 18942, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    17. Travis J. Lybbert & David R. Just, 2007. "Is Risk Aversion Really Correlated with Wealth? How Estimated Probabilities Introduce Spurious Correlation," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(4), pages 964-979.
    18. Rousselière, Damien & Joly, Iragäel, 2011. "A propos de la capacité à survivre des coopératives : une étude de la relation entre âge et mortalité des organisations coopératives agricoles françaises," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement (RAEStud), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 92(3).
    19. Anna Carbone, 2017. "Food supply chains: coordination governance and other shaping forces," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-23, December.
    20. Thembi Xaba & Nyankomo Marwa & Babita Mathur-Helm, 2018. "Efficiency and Profitability Analysis of Agricultural Cooperatives in Mpumalanga, South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(6), pages 1-10.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cooperatives; sustainable development; argan oil; development strategy; e-commerce strategy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J54 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Producer Cooperatives; Labor Managed Firms
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O22 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Project Analysis
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:trn:utwpeu:1229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Barbara Franchini (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/euricit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.