Case study proposal and outline

ARE 132: Cooperative Business Enterprises Kiesel

Final Project: Case Study of Cooperative Business Enterprises Goal: Learning is not a spectator sport. This project allows you to apply the material covered throughout the quarter in an analysis of an existing cooperative business or marketing order of your choice. It also serves a preparation for possible internship position, job applications, or as a writing sample to be included in job or advanced degree applications. An important aspect of successfully completing this project is to identify a business issue and clearly focus your case study on offering possible solutions. The more specific you are, the easier it will be to complete your project successfully. Throughout your analysis, you are expected to develop an in-depth understanding of the business and think about potential strategies to address your identified issue. I strongly encourage you to reach out to the business you are analyzing and talk to management, members and/or patrons.

Content and Structure: Your final project can be no longer than 10 pages (double-spaced), and should provide an answer to each of the following seven questions:

1) What is a pressing issue the business is currently facing (It may not necessarily relate to being a co-op)?

2) Description of the co-op a) industry cooperative is operating in b) products and/or services provided c) organizational structure(e.g. who is horizontally coordinating and are they vertically

integrating? 3) What economic conditions (production, market, regulatory) are affecting the cooperative

(either its formation or its current operations)? 4) What economic rationale supports the cooperative’s existence (More than one rationale

may be relevant.)? 5) How are contemporary cooperative principles demonstrated in this case? (At the

minimum, address the three principles defined by the USDA, but you might also refer to the seven principles defined by ICA depending on the business.)?

6) Has the firm’s cooperative structure (either the co-op principles or government regulations specifically related to co-ops) had an adverse impact on the cooperative’s business performance? What are specific challenges faced in the context of management, or market strategies?

7) How do our derived keys to success relate to your analyzed business and what specific recommendations and suggestions can you give based on your analysis? Why do think they might be successful?

Sample Outlines: Please note that you do not have to follow the structure suggested here and that your headings could either be based on structure or content.

Executive Summary

The Business Issue Description of the Co-op and Business History Application of Contemporary Principles Economic Rationale and Insights from the Literature Business Performance and Challenges Faced Next Steps and Recommended Strategies References or (less detailed but similar content) Executive Summary The Business Issue Analysis Recommendations References

I will continuously provide additional guidance throughout the quarter and have posted previously completed plans on Canvas as illustrative examples of a general structure as well.

Groups: You will be working on this project in groups of 4 to 5 students. Groups will be assigned during the second week of instructions. In a first round, we will try match students according to their interests in certain businesses. Students that are undecided or do not have well established preferences at that time will be randomly assigned to groups. While I encourage you to assign tasks to each other, each member should be familiar with and contribute to all aspects of this project. That includes reading and editing drafts before submissions. All group members will receive the same grade for the final project. Please reach out if you experience issues in terms of group participation. If a member has not participated until week 8 of the quarter (Thursday, February 25th) he/she/they can be removed from the group and will have to complete their own project. A 5 point penalty will be applied to their grade.

Deliverables: You are asked to submit a case study proposal and outline by the end of the third week (Friday, January 22) to receive initial feedback. Your complete case study is due at the beginning of our last lecture (Thursday, March 11). While you have to upload a pdf version to Canvas, you can also bring a printed version to class that day. Further instructions are provided on Canvas. A grading rubric s posted on Canvas for both of those deliverables.

References: You are free to use academic resources, reports, and websites. Please do not just copy and paste information and be sure to reference all your sources, however. You are required to cite a reference even if you rephrase what you have read. That is also true for graphs or tables that you are including, unless you are creating those yourself.

Proper citation: If you are citing an article or other sources in the text, you do not have to write out the title and full author name. Instead, you cite by using the last name and publication year only. If you cite word for word, you will also have to reference the page number as well. You then include the complete information for all of your references used in the reference section at the end of your paper. Citation styles vary slightly across academic outlets and other publications in Economics. I do not require that you follow a particular style as long as you are consistent throughout and include all information to identify and access your source. Please refer to sample references and styles published by AEA (https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/policies/sample-references) for additional guidance.

Cooperative Business Enterprises for your Analysis: You are free to complete your analysis on any enterprise with a cooperative business structure. Please check the NCB Co-op 100 list (top 100 cooperatives in America) for a wide variety of businesses and contact names. Below, I also provide a list of possible co-ops for which I can provide you with contact information to reach out to: Possible Businesses, Marketing orders and agreements:

1. Blue Diamond 2. BUCRA (Butte County Rice Growers Association) 3. California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) 4. California Pears Advisory Board (Marketing order) 5. CoBank 6. Davis Natural Food Co-op 7. E&I Cooperative Services (Purchasing Co-op that UC Davis uses for

procurement) 8. Fruit Growers Supply (Cooperative association for farm supplies) 9. Full Belly Farm (CSA, Yolo County) 10. Golden State Power 11. Land O'Lakes 12. LBMX (Purchasing Co-op) 13. Pachamama Coffee (Global Farmer’s Cooperative) 14. Sacramento Natural Food Co-op 15. SunMaid Growers 16. The Cheese Board Collective 17. Three Stone Hearth (Community supported kitchen, Berkeley) 18. Dos Pinos (Housing Co-op, Davis) 19.