转型时期农民专业合作社的组织行为研究

【作者】 黄胜忠；

【导师】 林坚；

【作者基本信息】 浙江大学 ， 农业经济管理， 2007， 博士

【摘要】 成员的同质性或异质性问题，在合作社理论中是一个重要的研究领域。一般而言，具有共同利益的成员之间的联合与合作是合作社有效运转的重要基础。然而，由于参与主体在资源禀赋、利益偏好和角色作用方面存在显著差异，中国的农民专业合作社从一开始就是异质性成员间的合作。成员异质性无疑对农民专业合作社的组织结构、治理机制、组织认定和成员承诺存在深刻影响。因此，从成员异质性视角探讨转型时期农民专业合作社的上述组织行为，对于促进农民专业合作社的规范运行和持续发展具有重要意义。作为“弱者”的小农通过联合来维护其自身利益是农民专业合作社发展的初衷，然而，实践中绝大多数农民专业合作社的形成和发展主要依赖于生产和运销大户、农村基层组织、供销合作社和龙头企业等少数处于相对“强势”地位的非小农群体，这是转型时期农民专业合作社面临的一个现实“悖论”。鉴于此，本文在对合作社有关文献进行比较全面、系统回顾和评述的基础上，首先采用规范分析方法，刻画了转型时期农民专业合作社的成长背景、描述了农民专业合作社的参与主体及其行为特征、分析了农民专业合作社的成长路径，揭示了农民专业合作社面临的内外部问题。在此基础上，基于不同层面的实地调查数据与资料，从成员异质性视角，采用多种实证分析方法，探讨了转型时期农民专业合作社的组织结构、治理机制、组织认定和成员承诺行为，并据此提出了促进农民专业合作社规范运行和持续发展的对策措施。主要内容包括以下几个方面：第一，从历史的角度，采用规范分析方法，对转型时期农民专业合作社的成长背景、主要参与主体及其行为特征、组织的成长路径和面临的问题进行系统分析。其目的在于揭示转型时期的农民专业合作社实质上是典型的“异质性成员间的合作”，为分析农民专业合作社的组织行为奠定基础。第二，成员异质性与农民专业合作社的组织结构。从成员异质性视角，对转型时期农民专业合作社的所有权结构、控制权结构和利益分配结构进行深入的剖析，并以浙江省372家农民专业合作社的截面数据为基础采用描述性统计分析方法和案例分析方法进行实证检验，以深入了解农民专业合作社的制度特性及其背后的现实逻辑。第三，成员异质性与农民专业合作社的治理机制。借鉴相对成熟的公司治理理论，从成员异质性视角归纳了外生性农民专业合作社面临的治理问题，并从绩效关联的角度总结了农民专业合作社的内外部治理机制。然后，以台州、温州和邯郸三个地区168家农民专业合作社的调查数据为基础，采用有序概率回归方法对治理机制与绩效之间的关系进行了实证检验。其目的是揭示农民专业合作社的治理现状和存在的问题，为农民专业合作社的规范运行提供依据。第四，成员异质性与农民专业合作社的组织认定。为考察成员异质性条件下农民专业合作社的组织定位问题，本文在对组织认定理论进行系统评述的基础上，以浙江省9家合作社180名成员为基础，采用因子分析方法对转型农民专业合作社组织认定的混合性和屈从性进行了实证检验，目的在于了解农民专业合作社组织认定的特性，为农民专业合作社的持续发展提供参考。第五，成员异质性与农民专业合作社的成员承诺。本文在对组织承诺理论进行回顾的基础上，以浙江省9家合作社180名成员为基础，采用多元回归分析方法对农民专业合作社的成员承诺的内容及其影响因素进行了实证研究，目的是明确成员异质性条件农民专业合作社成员承诺的内容，揭示转型时期农民专业合作社成员承诺的特点，为农民专业合作社的持续发展提供参考。最后，在对本文的主要研究结论进行总结的基础上，提出了促进农民专业合作社规范运行和持续发展的对策启示，并对后续研究进行了展望。本文的主要创新之处在于：(1)对合作社及其有关理论文献进行了新的探讨：以新古典经济学、新制度经济学和博弈论为理论基础对合作社的出现、本质和绩效从多角度进行梳理，从演化的角度对合作社的市场战略和制度安排进行梳理，并在文献梳理的基础上构建了一个关于农业合作社的分析框架。(2)异质性成员间的合作是转型时期农民专业合作社组织的最本质特征。由于成员异质性会对农民专业合作社的组织行为产生深刻影响，在实地调查的基础上，本文对成员异质性及其对农民专业合作社组织结构、治理机制、组织认定和成员承诺的影响以及作用机制进行了深入的研究。(3)本文在指标上量化了转型时期农民专业合作社的组织结构、治理机制及其绩效、组织认定的性质、成员承诺的内容及其影响因素，并相应地采用描述性统计、有序概率回归、因子分析、多元线性回归等检验模型进行了实证分析。研究发现，由于形成过程的“制度惯性”，参与主体的“多样性”以及成长路径的“外生性”，转型时期的农民专业合作社是以“强者牵头，弱者参与”为基本特征的“异质性成员间的合作”。在成员异质性条件下，农民专业合作社的制度安排具有非均衡性和激励相容性；组织内部存在利益冲突、代理问题以及“隧道效应”等治理问题，理事会等内外部治理机制都对合作社的绩效有显著影响；农民专业合作社的组织认定具有混合性和屈从性；成员承诺主要体现为情感上的认同和行为上的投入，社员的个人特征、资源禀赋、角色特征以及组织结构是影响成员承诺的主要因素。更多还原

【Abstract】 Membership homogeneity or heterogeneity is an important research field in the theory of cooperatives. Traditionally, cooperatives should be organized around common interests to achieve higher performance. However, as actors are different in endowment resources, their aims and roles, Chinese farmer specialized cooperatives are typical cooperative organizations based on heterogeneous members. Membership heterogeneity may certainly have an impact on farmer specialized cooperatives’ organizational structure, governance mechanisms, organizational identity and member commitment. Therefore, it’s necessary to analyze the above-mentioned organizational behaviors from a perspective on membership heterogeneity, which will be also beneficial to the efficient and sustainable development of farmer specialized cooperatives.As small farmers are usually less privileged groups, cooperation among each other should be a good way to protect their interests in market competition. However, most farmer specialized cooperatives are actually founded and controlled by some relative well priviliged groups who are big producers, market traders, traditional Rural Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, agricultural related process enterprises, or local government departments. This is the practical paradox for farmer specialized cooperatives in a transitional period. Trying to deal with this paradox, this dissertation begins with a systematic review of existing literature on cooperative studies, describes the formation process of farmer specialized cooperatives in a transitional peridod and then from membership heterogeneity perspective empirically analyses their organizational behavior based on primary data collected from field surveys, finally concludes by comments, implications for policy making, and recommendations for future research. The main contents of this dissertation are as follows:At first, from a historical point of view, the author analyzes the growth background, main actors and their behavior, organization maturation of fanner specialized cooperatives by using the method of normative analysis. The main purpose is to point out that "cooperation based on heterogeneous members" is the essential characteristic of farmer specialized cooperatives in a transitional period, which will serve as a basis to discuss their organizational behavior.Secondly, membership heterogeneity and organizational structure of farmer specialized cooperatives. This section attires to provide an understanding of the ownership structure, control structure and benefit allocation structure of farmer specialized cooperatives from a perspective on membership heterogeneity, and the author bases its research on the practice of 372 farmer specialized cooperatives in Zhejiang province. The main findings are: under heterogeneous membership, shareholding is popular among cooperatives, most of them are usually composed of a minority of big shareholders (core members) and a majority of small shareholders (common members); the board of directors are usually composed of core members who hold most of controlling rights on decision-making; the cooperative’s surplus is usually divided into two parts: retention as public accumulation in cooperatives and distribution among members mainly according to members’ shareholding rights.Thirdly, membership heterogeneity and governance mechanisms of farmer specialized cooperatives. Based on a brief review of the theory of cooperate governance, this section aims to analyze to the governance of farmer specialized cooperatives through a systematic empirical study with primary data of 168 cooperatives and Ordered Probit Model. In order to understand the current governance practices, the author identifies two sets of variables that capture farmer specialized cooperatives’ performance and governance mechanisms, in light of literature review and China’s practices. The empirical results indicate that performance is significantly correlated with governance mechanisms; cooperatives with better governance have higher growth ability, profitting ability and member satisfaction.Fourthly, membership heterogeneity and organizational identity of farmer specialized cooperatives. Organizational identities are the features of an organization that members and management perceive as ostensibly central, distinctive, and enduring in character and their identification with it. As it has functions of internal integration and external adaptation, organizational identity has grown over the past decade to be an important issue in analyzing many aspects of an organization. From an perspective on membership heterogeneity, this section describes an exploratory study into organizational identity of farmer specialized cooperatives in a transitional period. Data was collected by using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with nine farmer specialized cooperatives in Zhejiang. The main findings are: farmer specialized cooperatives have a strong hybrid identity, deeply rooted in their pluralistic mission, normative and utilitarian value systems; under heterogeneous membership, the core members which play a larger role in the organization regard utilitarian identity as a salient one, and the common members’ preferred identity is a normative one. During the development of farmer specialized cooperatives, the "normative and utilitarian hybrid identity" should be given enough attention to and effectively managed.Fifthly, membership heterogeneity and member commitment of farmer specialized cooperatives. As business organizations, cooperatives are highly complex. If they are to form and succeed, they must develop and nurture member commitment. This section describes an exploratory study into member commitment in farmer specialized cooperatives from an perspective on membership heterogeneity. Data was collected by using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with nine farmer specialized cooperatives in Zhejiang. The author tries to identify the various kinds of commitment made by heterogeneous members and the characteristics of the various kinds of commitment of farmer specialized cooperatives, which possible can sever as references for the sustainable development of farmer specialized cooperatives.Basing his research on the summary of this study, the author makes some public and private policy recommendations for the development of farmer specialized cooperatives, and also gives some recommendations for further academic research.This study is unique in several dimensions. Most importantly, it is the first study to analyze farmer specialized cooperatives’ organizational behavior from a perspective on membership heterogeneity which is a key issue for Chinese farmer cooperatives in a transitional period. It is also the first study to apply the theory of organizational identity and organizational commitment to farmer specialized cooperatives, making use of cooperative member-level data. In addition, the study is the first to summarize two sets of indicators to evaluate farmer specialized cooperatives’ performance and governance mechanisms. Research results are expected to inform both private and public policy makers concerned with improving the efficiency and sustainability of farmer specialized cooperatives.更多还原