Research On The Mechanism Of Internal Relationship Strength On Cooperative Performance

As a new type of agricultural business entity,farmers’ professional cooperatives(hereinafter referred to as "cooperatives")are not only an important means to increase farmers’ income and agricultural efficiency,but also a key force to improve the level of agricultural modernization.However,in practice,cooperatives still face severe resource constraints,such as weak resource endowment and poor flow of knowledge and information within the organization,which makes the development of most cooperatives difficult.As an important social resource,internal relationship network is an important basis for knowledge sharing and resource exchange within an organization.Considering the characteristics of resource constraints of cooperatives,this paper attempts to explore the growth mechanism of cooperatives from the perspective of "internal relationship strength",and introduces knowledge sharing as the intermediary variable of internal relationship strength affecting cooperative performance,and members’ learning ability as the moderating variable of the relationship between knowledge sharing and cooperative performance,Try to open the black box of "internal relationship strength-cooperative performance" and provide a new idea for understanding the growth of cooperatives in the environment of scarce resources.In view of this,this paper first reviews and combs the relevant literature,constructs the relationship model between internal relationship strength,knowledge sharing(explicit knowledge sharing,tacit knowledge sharing),member learning ability and cooperative performance under the guidance of social network theory,knowledge management theory and organizational learning theory,and puts forward the corresponding research hypotheses.Through the survey data of 326 cooperatives in Hunan Province,this paper makes a descriptive statistical analysis on the samples,verifies the reliability and validity of the data,tests the research hypothesis,and makes a reasonable explanation for the empirical results in combination with the theory and actual situation of cooperatives.The research shows that: first,the strength of internal relations has a positive impact on the performance of cooperatives,that is,the strong relationship between members in cooperatives can help cooperatives effectively break through the dilemma of resource constraints and take the lead in development;Second,the strength of internal relationship is an effective way for members to acquire and explore new knowledge,which plays a positive role in promoting the sharing of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge;Third,knowledge sharing is conducive to improving the performance of cooperatives.Both explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing can lay a foundation for improving the performance of cooperatives.Compared with explicit knowledge sharing,tacit knowledge sharing has a more significant impact on the performance of cooperatives;Fourth,the strength of internal relations can improve the performance of cooperatives through explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing,but these two sharing methods only partially mediate the relationship between the strength of internal relations and the performance of cooperatives;Fifth,members’ learning ability positively regulates the relationship between tacit knowledge sharing and cooperative performance,but has no significant impact on the relationship between explicit knowledge sharing and cooperative performance.Finally,according to the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: first,cooperatives should strengthen the management of internal relations;Second,cooperatives should create a good cultural atmosphere of knowledge sharing;Third,cooperatives should pay attention to cultivating the learning ability of their members.