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The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the issue of preference heterogeneity in cooperatives.

Drawing on the ideas of Habermas and Luhmann, this paper interprets preference heterogeneity of cooperative members in terms of the precarious relationship between the categories of “system” and “lifeworld.” The argument is buttressed with a case study of an agricultural cooperative recently founded in Central Greece.

The sensitivity of cooperatives to the lifeworld contexts of their members exacts the price in the form of the member preference heterogeneity problem. If this sensitivity is taken to be the constitutive characteristic of cooperatives, then the proposed argument hammers home their fundamental ambivalence, as they are necessarily fraught with the potential for internal conflict.

The paper urges for a radical rethinking of Georg Draheim’s thesis of the “double nature” of cooperatives. “Double nature” is shown to aggravate the member preference heterogeneity problem.

The results of this study inform the cooperative leaders’ quest to strike a balance between the interests of their members and the demands of the external socio-economic environment.

This research contributes significantly to the literature on collective decision-making costs incurred by cooperatives. The failure of cooperatives to balance the sensitivity to members’ interests and to the external environment is exposed as the root cause of the divergence and heterogeneity of member preferences. This heterogeneity is shown to boost collective decision-making costs.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it identifies distinct organizational models in a sample of small and medium enterprises operating in the Sicilian wine industry; and second, it identifies the key factors enabling a superior export success.

Internal resources were analyzed theoretically in order to achieve the aims of the study. Subsequently the empirical investigation was carried out administering a questionnaire to a sample of 102 wineries in Sicily, Italy. A cluster analysis was performed in order to group these firms into homogeneous categories.

The findings show that success in the international market is more common among wineries characterized by a larger physical and economic size, a longer experience in the international market, managed by entrepreneurs-owners who are highly educated and proficient in foreign language, and implement voluntary certifications.

The results need to be interpreted within the context of the study’s research design; more specifically, the reader should take into account that the study focuses exclusively on one industry and on one region (wine in Sicily).

The findings offer a valid support for managers who could use this results to better focus their effort and choose the most appropriate strategy in order to improve their performance in foreign markets.

Very few empirical studies have been carried out on the impact that internal and in particular organizational resources have on the firms’ organizational models operating in the wine industry.

Transaction cost economics sees a broad spectrum of governance structures spanned by two types of economic adaptation: autonomous and cooperative. Stakeholder theorists have drawn much inspiration from transaction cost economics but have not paid explicit attention to the centrality of the idea of adaptation in this literature. This study aims to address this gap.

The authors develop a novel conceptual framework applying the distinction between the two types of economic adaptation to stakeholder theory.

The authors argue that the idea of cooperative adaptation is particularly useful for describing the firm’s collaboration with primary stakeholders in the joint value creation process. In contrast, autonomous adaptation is more relevant for firms interacting with secondary stakeholders who are not directly engaged in joint value creation and may not have formal contractual relationships with the firm. Accordingly, cooperative adaptation can be seen as vital for resolving team production problems affecting joint value creation, whereas autonomous adaptation addresses how the firm maintains legitimacy within the larger stakeholder environment.

Similar to its significance for transaction cost economics, the distinction between the two types of adaptation equips stakeholder theory with a new systematic understanding of a potentially broad spectrum of firm–stakeholder collaboration forms.

The purpose of this paper is to identify which innovation implementation strategies have the highest success potential, and which factors affect the adoption of fruit‐related innovations by consumers. The authors focus on consumer‐driven and responsive fruit supply chains.

The authors propose a new conceptual framework that links fruit consumption to innovation implementation strategies. A total of 36 experts in four panels organised, respectively, in Spain, Poland, Greece, and The Netherlands evaluated the elements of the proposed framework.

“Market orientation” and “continuous learning and knowledge acquisition” surfaced as the innovation implementation strategies with the highest success potential. However, the optimal mix of strategies depends on the particular innovation as well as the geographic and cultural characteristics of the targeted consumer population. Furthermore, improving technological competence is the single most important factor affecting fruit innovation adoption.

The reported results are derived from four small groups of purposefully chosen experts and supply chain stakeholders. Nevertheless, they provide new insights useful to policy makers, consumers, and entrepreneurs.

In designing innovations, fruit chain actors should first and foremost consider the price premium consumers will have to pay. Furthermore, for some innovations geographic or cultural characteristics become very important. Therefore, fruit supply chains should design their innovation implementation strategies accordingly.

By adopting efficiently designed innovation implementation strategies, consumer‐driven fruit supply chains will convince consumers to eat more fruit. Thus, given the critical contribution of fruit consumption to human health, an important social goal is achieved.

While the literature on innovation is enormous, very little has been published on innovation implementation strategies adopted by consumer‐driven and responsive fruit chains. The significance of addressing the previously mentioned issues stems from the need to increase fruit consumption in Europe, which lags behind the levels suggested by physicians and nutrition scientists. Fruit‐related innovations are a useful means to achieving this goal.

There is little reason a priori to expect that a cooperative firm’s capital needs are different from a non-cooperative firm’s needs if the two firms are otherwise similar in function and size and operate within similar market economies. However, the notion that cooperatives face capital constraints that investor-owned firms (IOFs) do not is a persistent theme in the literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors revisit this hypothesis with an empirical examination of capital constraints in a panel data set of US agricultural supply and grain cooperatives and IOFs.

The findings are mixed. While the authors find little to suggest that cooperatives face financial constraints on borrowing in the short run, relative to IOFs, the authors do find some evidence that for long-term investments, a capital constraint may exist.

These short and long run differences have implications for the survival and growth of agricultural cooperatives. While in the short run, access to debt financing allows these firms to operative profitably, ultimately long-term large investments in technology and fixed assets will be required to maintain competitiveness in this industry.