Eureka! Institutional Repository

The aim of the current dissertation is to present a full description of the profile of the Agricultural Cooperative of Saffron Kozani, in order to investigate its development as well as the organizational behavior of its members. The main reason as for this choice is that on the one hand, it is included in the register of active cooperatives and, on the other hand, it is one of the most active cooperatives in the country. In order to fulfill the general purpose of the research and the need to investigate the research questions which were raised, secondary sources and primary data, which derived from the extensive field research, were utilized. Regarding the secondary data, bibliographic references and statistical data related to the Agricultural Cooperatives as well as the attitudes of the members were used. The primary data were collected through a fully-structured questionnaire which was addressed to a random sample of 150 Saffron growers. The methodological framework of analysis includes methods of descriptive statistical analysis of the demographic and agricultural characteristics. In addition, the members' relations with the Cooperative are analyzed. The results regarding the members' behavior and the benefits from the Cooperative were obtained by applying the Cronbach Alpha coefficient. Finally, the statistically significant correlations of the behavior and benefits scores, both among themselves and with other quantitative variables, were analyzed by using the Pearson correlation coefficient. By summarizing the results of the study, we came to the following conclusions: The cooperative through innovative solutions tries to reduce production costs and improve the produced product and services. By following the road of extroversion and increasing its exports, the cooperative tries to increase its market share and minimize the risks arising from its activity in a specific environment. Regarding the organizational behavior of its members, it appears that the cooperative has benefited not only the members but also the region and the local community. The greater benefits were the confidence to sell their production, the support of the local community, the co-operative staff, the satisfactory selling prices of the product, equal rights for all members, and the encouragement for active participation.