Agrarian cooperatives as a business model that generates social inclusion: the case of banana cooperatives of Magdalena region (Colombia)

Abstract

Agricultural cooperatives are an organizational model to help improve the production and marketing of products. Cooperatives generate income and changes in associates. Some of these cooperatives develop business models which generate social inclusion with the small producers. The objective of this paper is to present the characteristics of agrarian cooperatives. These cooperatives generate businesses with economic and social inclusion of less favored people (base of the pyramid) in their economic model. To develop this research, some theoretical propositions were constructed from a literature review. These propositions were validated through a multiple case analysis (six banana cooperatives from the department of Magdalena, Colombia), using the deductive method. Results show that an agricultural cooperative develops an inclusive business when: it includes small producers in a value chain; there is generation of economic and social value; when the creation and development of the cooperative is generated by the small producers' own iniciative, by some actor of the productive chain and / or by a normativity; and when the cooperative model can be replicable and / or scalable over time.