Performances of innovative agricultural cooperatives: the case of Nopaltec for the development of prickly pear in Algeria

Abstract

Performances of innovative agricultural cooperatives: the case of Nopaltec for the development of prickly pear in Algeria. This study highlights the impact of innovation on the market orientation and performance of a cooperative for the valorization of prickly pear co-products in Algeria. While the collective entrepreneurship outcomes have been widely discussed, it has been much less so for innovative cooperatives. In this paper, we focus on the performance of this model of entrepreneurship based on the reappropriation of technical innovations. In this sense, our analysis seeks to extend previous empirical research on the performance of agricultural cooperatives by introducing market orientation and a more comprehensive assessment of the socioeconomic performance of innovative cooperatives like Nopaltec. Our results on « alternatives » performances - role in collective appropriation and dissemination of innovation, sector structuration, socio-political and territorial functions of the cooperative - argue for a broader conception of the performances of agricultural cooperative structures.