Achieving a higher level of efficiency is one of the main goals of agricultural cooperatives. However, it is not clear whether the cooperative farms are more efficient than non-cooperative farms. In this line, the present study aims to compare the performance of the cooperative and non-cooperative farms by employing the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (DEA). To this end, a survey was designed to collect data from the sugar beet farmers of West Azerbaijan province in Iran. Overall, 30 samples from cooperative farms and 29 samples from non-cooperative farms were interviewed randomly. Then, the efficiency scores for both sample groups were calculated separately. Finally, the average of efficiency scores was compared by using the non-parametric approach (Mann–Whitney test). The study findings revealed that the average efficiency scores of cooperative farms are significantly higher than non-cooperatives farms. Additionally, the results emphasized the economy of scale among the cooperative farms. Overall, we found that performance of sugar beet cooperatives is substantially better than the non-cooperatives; thus, supporting the cooperatives is recommended in the study area in order to improve the efficiency.
AbateG. T.FrancesconiG. N.GetnetK.2014. ‘Impact of Agricultural Cooperatives in Smallholders’ Technical Efficiency: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia’. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics85 (2): 257–86.
2.
AkridgeJ. T.HertelT. W.1992. ‘Cooperative and Investor-Oriented Firm Efficiency: A Multiproduct Analysis’. Journal of Agricultural Cooperation7: 1–14.
3.
AndersenP.PetersenN. C.1993. ‘A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis’. Management Science39: 1261–65.
4.
Annual Report. 2015. Iran’s Ministry of Agriculture-Jihad Data Set.
5.
Annual Report. 2016. Iranian Sugar Factories Syndicate Data Set.
6.
AzadiH.HosseininiaG. H.ZarafshaniK.HeydariA.WitloxF.2010. ‘Factors Influencing the Success of Animal Husbandry Cooperatives: A Case Study in Southwest Iran’. Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics111 (2): 89–99.
7.
BankerR.ChangH.2006. ‘The Super-Efficiency Procedure for Outlier Identification, Not for Ranking Efficient Units’. European Journal of Operational Research175 (2): 1311–20.
8.
BankerR. D.GiffordJ. L.1988. A Relative Efficiency Model for the Evaluation of Public Health Nurse Productivity. Carnegie: Mellon University Mimeo.
9.
BankerR. D.ZhengZ.NatarajanR.2010. ‘DEA-Based Hypothesis Tests for Comparing Two Groups of Decision Making Units’. European Journal of Operational Research1: 231–38.
CaputoM. R.LynchL.1993. ‘A Nonparametric Efficiency Analysis of California Cotton Ginning Cooperatives’. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association18 (2): 251–65.
12.
ChandrababuS.HariprasadS.2015. ‘A Concept of Input-Output Oriented Super-Efficiency in Decision Making Units’. American Journal of Engineering Research4 (1): 76–81.
13.
CharnesA.CooperW. W.RhodesE.1978. ‘Measuring the Efficiency of Decision Making Units’. European Journal of Operational Research2: 429–44.
14.
CharnesA.HaagS.JaskaP.SempleJ.1992. ‘Sensitivity of Efficiency Classifications in the Additive Model of Data Envelopment Analysis’. International Journal of Systems Science23: 789–98.
15.
ChenY.DuJ.HoaJ.2013. ‘Super-Efficiency Based on a Modified Directional Distance Function’. Omega41: 621–25.
16.
CoelliT. J.RaoD. S. P.O’DonnellC. J.BatteseG.2005. An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis, 2nd edition.New York: Springer.
17.
CookM. L.1995. ‘The Future of U.S. Agricultural Cooperatives: A Neo-Institutional Approach’. American Journal of Agricultural Economics77 (5): 1153–59.
DhehibiB.AlimariA.HaddadN.Aw-HassanA.2014. ‘Technical Efficiency and Its Determinants in Food Crop Production: A Case Study of Farms in West Bank, Palestine’. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology16: 717–30.
20.
GhaliElDanielM. B, K.ColsonF.SorinS.2012. Towards an Ecologically Intensive Agriculture: From Concept to Implementation by an Agricultural Cooperative. Bonn: International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks, Universität Bonn-ILB Press.
21.
FareR.GrosskokpfS.LovellC. A. K.1994. Production Frontiers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22.
GolanyB.StorbergJ.1999. ‘A Data Envelopment Analysis of the Operational Efficiencies of Bank Branches’. Interfaces29 (3): 14–26.
23.
HahnJ.KauffmanR. J.2003. ‘Measuring and Comparing the Effectiveness of e-commerce Website Designs’. Working Paper, MIS Research Center, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
24.
HailuG.JeffreyS.GoddardE.NgD.2005. ‘Regulatory Environment, Cooperative Structure, and Agency Costs for Cooperative Agribusiness Firms in Canada: Comparative Case Studies’. Journal of Food Distribution Research36 (2): 39–49.
25.
JohnsonA. L.McGinnisL. F.2009. ‘The Hyperbolic-Oriented Efficiency Measure as a Remedy to Infeasibility of Super-Efficiency Models’. Journal of the Operational Research Society60: 1511–17.
26.
JonesD. C.KalmiP.2012. ‘Economies of Scale Versus Participation: A Co-operative Dilemma?’ Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity1 (1): 37–64.
27.
KaramiE.Rezaei-MoghaddamK.2005. ‘Modeling Determinants of Agricultural Production Cooperatives’ Performance in Iran’. Agricultural Economics33 (3): 305–14.
28.
KrasachatW.ChimkulK.2009. ‘Performance Measurement of Agricultural Cooperatives in Thailand: An Accounting-Based Data Envelopment Analysis’. In Productivity, Efficiency, and Economic Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region, edited by LeeJ.-D.HeshmatiA., 255–65. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
29.
KumbhakarS. C.BiswasB.BaileyD.1989. ‘A Study of Economic Efficiency of Utah Dairy Farmers: A Systems Approach’. The Review of Economics and Statistics71: 595–604.
30.
MaW.RenwickA.YuanP.RatnaN.2018. ‘Agricultural Cooperative Membership and Technical Efficiency of Apple Farmers in China: An Analysis Accounting for Selectivity Bias’. Food Policy81: 122–32.
31.
MannH. B.WhitneyD. R.1947. ‘On a Test Whether One of Two Random Variables Is Stochastically Larger than the Other’. Annals of Mathematical Statistics18 (1): 50–60.
32.
NilssonJ.KihlénA.NorellL.2009. ‘Are Traditional Cooperatives an Endangered Species? About Shrinking Satisfaction, Involvement and Trust’. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review12 (4): 101–22.
33.
RoyerJ. S.1999. ‘Cooperative Organizational Strategies: A Neo-institutional Digest’. Journal of Cooperatives14: 44–67.
34.
RoyerJ. S.2014. ‘The Neoclassical Theory of Cooperatives: Part II’. Journal of Cooperatives28: 20–35.
35.
SauerJ.GortonM.WhiteJ.2012. ‘Marketing, Cooperatives and Price Heterogeneity: Evidence from the CIS Dairy Sector’. Agricultural Economics43 (2): 165–77.
36.
SeifordL. M.ZhuJ.1998. ‘An Acceptance System Decision Rule with Data Envelopment Analysis’. Computers & Operations Research25: 329–39.
37.
SextonR. J.1984. ‘Perspectives on the Development of the Economic Theory of Cooperatives’. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics32 (2): 423–36.
38.
SextonR. J.IskowJ.1993. ‘What Do We Know About the Economic Efficiency of Cooperatives: An Evaluative Survey’. Journal of Agricultural Cooperation8: 15–27.
39.
SinghS.CoelliT.FlemingE.2001. ‘Performance of Dairy Plants in the Cooperative and Private Sectors in India’. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics72 (4): 453–79.
40.
SobohR. A. M.Oude LansinkE., A.Van DijkG.2011. ‘Distinguishing Dairy Cooperatives from Investor-Owned Firms in Europe Using Financial Indicators’. Agribusiness27: 34–46.
41.
SobohR. A. M. E.Oude LansinkA.GiesenG.Van DijkG.2009. ‘Performance Measurement of the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative: The Gap Between Theory and Practice’. Review of Agricultural Economics31: 446–69.
42.
StaatzJ. M.1989. ‘Farmer Cooperative Theory: Recent Developments’. ACS Research Report No. 84. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Cooperative Services.
43.
YooC.-K.BucoolaS.GopinathM.2013. ‘Cooperative Pricing and Scale Efficiency: The Case of Korean Rice Processing Complexes’. Agricultural Economics44 (3): 309–21.
44.
ZhuJ.2003. Quantitative Models for Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking: Data Envelopment Analysis with Spreadsheets and DEA Excel Solver. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
