Joint ownership by farmers and investors in the agri-food industry: an exploratory study of the limited cooperative association

Agricultural and Food Economics

Table 1 Comparison of the ownership and governance characteristics of traditional and hybrid cooperatives

Characteristic	Traditional cooperative	New generation cooperative	Limited cooperative association	Limited liability company
Open membership	Yes	No	No	No
Farmer ownership	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Farmer control	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Investor ownership	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Investor control	No	No	Yes	Yes
Share appreciability	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Share transferability	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Equity redeemability	Yes	No	No	No
Board of directors	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Supply commitment	No	Yes	Yes	No

Sources: Brown and Merrett (2000), Chaddad and Cook (2004), Geu and Dean (2009a)
The listed characteristics are general outlines. In practice, legal structures are flexible and characteristics may be adjusted at the discretion of the board of directors or some other governance entity with authority to change the bylaws