Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

According to social capital theory, small cooperatives with simple business operations have more social capital in their membership than large, complex cooperatives. The geographical and social proximity among members, and between members and leadership, fosters social capital. This proposition is investigated empirically using data from member surveys in three Swedish farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives that vary greatly in size, from about 36,000 to 1600 and 150 members. The findings strongly support the view that the smaller the cooperative, the higher the social capital, expressed in terms of members' involvement, trust, satisfaction, and loyalty.