Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T23:52:54.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The evolution of the Dutch dairy industry and the rise of cooperatives: a research note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2013

KOEN FRENKEN*
Affiliation:
School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
*

Abstract:

Economic historians tend to explain the rise of the cooperative form in agriculture from the advantage of cooperative over private factories in reducing transaction costs with suppliers. This study provides a first test of this thesis using data on 1,130 dairy factories in The Netherlands. Indeed, we find that cooperative factories performed significantly better than private factories. The persistence of private factories in certain regions can be explained by first-mover advantages.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Audretsch, D. B. and Mahmood, T. (1994), ‘The Rate of Hazard Confronting New Firms and Plants in U.S. Manufacturing’, Review of Industrial Organization, 9 (1): 4156.Google Scholar
Bijman, J. (2000), ‘Cooperaties’, in Kracht door Verandering, Den Haag: Jubileumboek LEI, pp. 127133 (in Dutch).Google Scholar
Caves, R. E. (1998), ‘Industrial Organization and New Findings on the Turnover and Mobility of Firms’, Journal of Economic Literature, 36 (4): 19471982.Google Scholar
Geluk, J. A. (1925), Gedenkboek van den Algemeenen Nederlandschen Zuivelbond (FNZ). Den Haag, FNZ (in Dutch).Google Scholar
Hendrikse, G. W. J. and Feng, L. (2013), ‘Interfirm Cooperatives’, in Grandori, A (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 501–521.Google Scholar
Henriksen, I. (1999), ‘Avoiding Lock-in: Cooperative Creameries in Denmark, 18821903’, European Review of Economic History, 3 (1): 5778.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (1996), ‘Organizational Form and Economic Evolution: A Critique of the Williamsonian Hypothesis’, in Pagano, U. and Rowthorn, R. E. (eds.), Democracy and Efficiency in Economic Enterprises, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 98115.Google Scholar
Klepper, S. (2002), ‘The Capabilities of New Firms and the Evolution of the US Automobile Industry’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 11 (4): 645666.Google Scholar
Klepper, S. and Simons, K. L. (1997), ‘Technological Extinctions of Industrial Firms: An Enquiry into Their Nature and Causes’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 6 (2): 379460.Google Scholar
Lieberman, M. (2013), ‘First-Mover Advantage’, in Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, in press.Google Scholar
Ménard, C. (2004), ‘The Economics of Hybrid Organizations’, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 160 (3): 345376.Google Scholar
O'Grada, C. (1977), ‘The Beginnings of the Irish Creamery System, 18801914’, Economic History Review, 30 (2): 284305.Google Scholar
O'Rourke, K. H. (2006), ‘Late 19th Century Denmark in an Irish Mirror: Land Tenure, Homogeneity and the Roots of Danish Success’, in Campbell, J. L., Hall, J. A. and Pedersen, O. K. (eds.), The State of Denmark: Small States, Corporatism and the Varieties of Capitalism, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, pp. 159196.Google Scholar
Ouchi, W. G. (1979), ‘A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms’, Management Science, 25 (9): 833848.Google Scholar
Roosen, H. M. J. A. (1993), De landbouwcoöperatie in een veranderende markt: onderzoek naar de gevolgen van de produktie- en marktbenadering voor de Nederlandse zuivelcoöperatie en haar leden. Unpublished PhD thesis, Twente University (in Dutch).Google Scholar
Van Bers, W. M. M. (1994), Zuivel- en Melkproductenindustrie. Zeist: Uitgave van Stichting Projectbureau Industrieel Erfgoed (in Dutch).Google Scholar
Van der Vleuten, E. and Raven, R. (2006), ‘Lock-in and Change: Distributed Generation in Denmark in a Long-Term Perspective’, Energy Policy, 34: 37393748.Google Scholar
Van Zanden, J. L. (1994), The Transformation of European Agriculture in the 19th Century: The Case of the Netherlands. Amsterdam: VU University Press.Google Scholar
Van Zanden, J. L. and Van Riel, A. (2004), The Strictures of Inheritance: The Dutch Economy in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, G. and Devine-Wright, P. (2008), ‘Community Renewable Energy: What Does It Mean?Energy Policy, 36: 497500.Google Scholar
Willemsens, P. and de Wit, K. C. (1995), De Bakermat van de Nederlandse Zuivelindustrie. Gorssel: Ing K.C. de Wit (in Dutch).Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. (1981), ‘The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach’, American Journal of Sociology, 87 (3): 548577.Google Scholar