What's So Special about Farmer Cooperatives in China?

Abstract

This paper trying to answer the fundamental issue—why and how is Chinese farmer cooperatives so special? Based on Leavitt’s Diamond Model, the study found that originated from spatial and temporal changes in the environment, as an import, the cooperatives obviously tilt towards the classic form of cooperative in China, and their organizing elements including goals, participants (members), technology (culture) and social structure all show distinct Chinese native characteristics. And the vast majority of Chinese cooperatives seem not to be “normative†because they mix the agricultural organization functions of cooperative organization, industrialization and socialization.