Corporate governance: the case of the major agricultural cooperatives of Spain

Internal governance changes are being introduced by cooperatives recently as a response to enhance their competitiveness. Bijman et al. (2014), in a recent paper about changes of internal governance in agricultural... [ view full abstract ]

Internal governance changes are being introduced by cooperatives recently as a response to enhance their competitiveness. Bijman et al. (2014), in a recent paper about changes of internal governance in agricultural cooperatives in the European Union recognize seven innovations or deviations from the traditional model of internal governance in European agricultural cooperatives: appointment of one or more professional managers who takes over the executive task of the Board of Directors, the introduction of proportional voting, the inclusion of non-members in the composition of the Board of Directors, the presence of outside experts in the Supervisory Board, the introduction of a legal separation between the cooperative association and the cooperative firm, the introduction of a Member Council, and finally, the introduction of hybrid ownership structures, particularly to having different functional types of owners.

This paper has the objective to analyse the real options that Spanish agricultural cooperatives have to introduce these innovations in their internal governance, through the analysis of the national and regional laws related with this issue. Secondly, internal governance of the major agricultural cooperatives of Spain will be studied, through a questionnaire, to corroborate if they are introducing some of those innovations.


References:

Bijman, J; Hanisch, M. y Van der Sangen (2014). “Shifting control? The changes of internal governance in agricultural cooperatives in the EU”. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 85: 4; 641-661.