Managerial Efficiency of Agricultural Cooperatives and Its Factors

Abstract

Agricultural cooperatives face various challenges. Efficiency changes during the past few decades has been explored yet necessary to address. This study employed a Data envelopment analysis (DEA) window approach, allowing for time series efficiency change measurements. This study measured the managerial efficiency of agricultural cooperatives in Japan by comparing general and specialized Japanese cooperatives using a DEA model. The results indicate that general cooperatives tended to be more efficient than specialized cooperatives. This is, possibly due to general cooperatives’ economies of scale. Second, a panel Tobit model was used to investigate factors affecting the measured efficiency score. The estimation results revealed that the number of subsidiary companies in general cooperatives significantly positively affected efficiency scores. Nevertheless, the number of female board members significantly negatively affected efficiency scores, indicating that diversified human resource management is essential.