Study On The Relationship Between Cooperatives And The Dealers In The Channel Of Agricultural Products Circulation

With the development of economic globalization, China’s industrialization and marketization of agricultural has been rapid development, and the market circulation system of agricultural products based on buyer-oriented has initially formed. But the contradiction between “small farmers” management in the rural household contract responsibility system and “big market” required from modernization of agriculture is increasingly prominent. Some problems,such as poor circulation of agricultural products,the low performance and instability relationship in the circulation of agricultural products and so on,are restricting China’s agricultural industrialization,meanwhile affect to solve the problem of agriculture,rural and farmers,even improve China’s international status.Cooperatives put small farmers into big market making internalization of external cost by reducing the frequency of transactions,and changing the perfectly competitive market in the past into the seller monopoly competition market in order to increase farmer income share of market economy. However,cooperatives also encounter many problems in the rapid development like high registration number,weak competitiveness,weak driving force for members and loose structure unstable partnership and so on. Therefore,it is necessary to embed cooperatives into marketing channel system of agricultural products,to explore the relationship between cooperatives and dealers in this mode so as to analyze relationship mechanism each other, which will have an important significance to implement channel management for cooperatives,construct efficient channel and ensure quality and safety of agricultural products.Firstly,the paper reviews systematically the relevant theory research of cooperative and channel,establishes the framework of embed cooperative on the agricultural products marketing channel,and explores the channel relationship between cooperative and dealers based on cooperative as the core enterprise. Secondly, the paper analyzes the current situation of cooperatives,and evaluates the channel competitiveness of cooperatives in agricultural products circulation in order to obtain the cooperative competitiveness rankings of 29 provinces and autonomous regions in China. Thirdly,the paper discusses the relationship mechanism of cooperative and dealers in the channel of agricultural products circulation, and develops a conceptual model of “channel relationshipbehavior---channel relationship quality---channel cooperation”,and gives an empirical test using structural equation. Finally, the paper shows the actual performance and the behavior details of their relationship using multiple cases. The conclusion based on the channel of agricultural products circulation is following as below:1. There is a great different on the competitiveness of cooperatives in the different areas. The study finds(1) the comprehensive score of cooperatives competitiveness in the circulation channel is Jiangsu province,especially its compulsory force factor is top one compared with other provinces;(2) Shandong province stays at top two in the comprehensive ability rank with the very strong reference for cooperatives,which means that it has a strong demonstration.(3) The third in the ranking is Henan province with higher force factors and reference factor, but lower return force factor.(4) The comprehensive score ranking of Zhejiang is No.4 with top one return force,which shows that profitability and support from government for cooperatives in the Zhejiang are the strongest;(5) the last three are respectively Qinghai, Ningxia and Beijing with lower reference force scores as the main reason.2. Relationship behavior between cooperatives and dealers impact on relationship quality. Based on Morgan and Hunt(1994) 、 Smith(1998) and Dionysis(2008) for reference, the paper divides relationship behavior into three dimensions of communication,asset specificity and sharing value,relationship quality is divided into three dimensions of trust,commitment and satisfaction in order to examine the influence of relationship behavior between cooperatives and dealers to relationship quality in the channel of agricultural products circulation. The study finds in the channel of agricultural products circulation that : first there is a significant positive correlation between asset specificity investment and trust of the two sides of cooperatives and dealers,but investment commitments of two sides had no significant effect; second,it is a significant positively correlation between shared values and trust、satisfaction in the two sides; third,there is a significant positive correlation between the communication、trust and satisfaction in the two sides.3. The three dimensions of relationship quality between cooperatives and dealers are affected each other,and has positive effect on the channel cooperation. The study finds that:first trust has positive effect on commitment in the two sides; second,satisfaction on commitment is not significant between cooperatives and dealers; third,the influence on channel cooperation from the three dimensions of relationship quality is a significantpositive, and the influence degrees from strong to week are commitments, trust and satisfaction.4. Relationship quality is the conduction mechanism of relationship behavior for channel cooperation. The paper discusses the operation mechanism of the relationship between cooperatives and dealers with 290 cooperatives as samples, and constructs a concept model of “channel relationship behavior---channel relationship quality---channel cooperation” using structural equation based on four steps analysis method(Causal Steps Approach; Baron and Kenny,1986) for testing the mediating effect of relationship quality.The study finds that the three dimensions of relationship behavior effect on different paths of channel cooperation,but the overall point of view,each dimensions of relationship quality has played an intermediary role.5. Trust and commitment have interactive between cooperatives and dealers. Taking Inner Mongolia as an example, the paper using multiple cases shows the actual performance and the behavior details between cooperatives and dealers by depth interview carried on some typical cooperatives from farming areas, pastoral areas and semi-agricultural areas. The study finds that first poor communication and opportunism will have a negative impact on trust between the channel dual relationships.; second shared valued and asset specificity investment has a positive impact on channel trust between the channel dual relationships; third both trust and commitment are interactive,because commitment behavior of dealers will affect the trust of cooperatives for it,and cooperatives trust affects its commitment and expression as well.The paper has the certain innovation based on inheriting the existing research as follows:Firstly, to construct the research frame of marketing channel system embedded cooperatives of agricultural products. In the paper,the micro individual(cooperative) as the core enterprise embedded into the big chain system of the whole agricultural products marketing channel taking Inner Mongolia as example to solve unsmooth of supply and demand in the agricultural product circulation, to explore the relationship between cooperatives and the dealers in the channel of agricultural products circulation. Clearly,the paper has a view innovation because of solving the practical problems of China’s agricultural product circulation using the western theory of marketing channelsrelationship.Secondly,the relationship model between cooperatives and dealers is established in the agricultural products circulation. This paper deeply analyzes the elements of the relationship between cooperatives and the dealers of agricultural products circulation,explains the relationship between the two sides of the operation mechanism,and makes theory model of channel relationship using structural equation of the empirical test,obtains the channel relationship experience model and path coefficient. Clearly, it provides a new idea to promote channel relationship quality between cooperatives and dealer in order to realize close cooperation.Finally,the study finds that there are different effects for trust from positive and negative relationship behavior between cooperatives and dealers in their dual relation by case study. At the same time,trust and commitment in the two sides has interaction. This study conclusion has practical value for constructing cooperatives, developing and maintaining channel relationship,and implementing channel management.