Research on the Motivation and Obstacles to the Formation of Farmers' Cooperative Associations Based on the Grounded Theory

Abstract

【Objective】The farmers' cooperative association is an important way to promote the moderate scale of agricultural production and management, extend the agricultural industrial chain and increase farmers' income. The establishment of farmers' cooperative association is an effective measure to improve the quality of the development of cooperatives and an inevitable trend to promote the prosperous development of cooperatives. Therefore, exploring the motives and obstacles of the establishment of farmers' cooperative associations is crucial for accelerating the high-quality development of cooperative associations.【Method】Based on the original interview data of 24 farmers' cooperatives, 6 cooperative associations and 30 members of cooperative associations, this study uses the Grounded Theory to qualitatively analyze the motivation and obstacle factors of cooperatives to establish cooperative associations, by fully abstracting the original interview data, through the three-level coding process of open coding, spindle coding and selective coding, constantly comparing and summarizing, and thoroughly analyzing the logical relations among various categories of concepts, finally, the model of motivation and obstacle factors of farmers' cooperative associations is constructed.【Result】The six principal categories of profit motivation, value motivation, interactive obstacle, management obstacle, quality obstacle and social environment in the construction model have different degrees and directions of influence on the formation behavior of cooperative associations. Among them, the profit motivation and value motivation are the intrinsic motivation of the formation of the cooperative associations, the representative description of A1-A3 cooperatives is chosen to test the results. While interactive obstacle, managerial obstacle, and diathesis obstacle inhibit the cooperative's willingness to form associations, the representative description of A4-A8 cooperatives is used to verify the results. Social environmental factors play a moderating role in the transformation from willingness to cooperate behavior, the representative description of A9-A15 cooperatives is chosen to analyze and verify the results. The results show that the differences in the factors affecting the formation of cooperatives are mainly in the following four aspects: from the focus on quantity cooperation to quality cooperation; From the focus on production front-end cooperation to the whole industry chain cooperation; From passive cooperation to active cooperation; From the form of cooperation to actual construction.【Conclusion】Based on research results, the following countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: Strengthening the profit motivation and value motivation of the cooperative establishment of the association; Strengthening the interactive communication in the establishment of cooperatives association; Standardizing the internal management of the leaders in the formation of cooperatives association; Playing the leading role of the chairman in the process of establishing the association; Strengthening the government's role in promoting the establishment of the association.

Keywords

• farmers' cooperative
• farmers' cooperative association
• grounded theory
• motivation
• obstacles