Facilitating Cooperation of Smallholders in Developing Countries : Design Principles for a Cooperative-Oriented Decentralized Autonomous Organization

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Amend, Julia ; Troglauer, Patrick ; Guggenberger, Tobias ; Urbach, Nils ; Weibelzahl, Martin:
Facilitating Cooperation of Smallholders in Developing Countries : Design Principles for a Cooperative-Oriented Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
In: Information Systems and e-Business Management. Bd. 22 (2024) . - S. 1-31.
ISSN 1617-9854
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10257-023-00659-7

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Abstract

Climate change and an increasing food demand due to a growing world population pose significant challenges for agriculture. Smallholders play a decisive role in establishing a sustainable and efficient future agricultural system since they already provide up to 80 percent of food in developing countries. However, they often face severe obstacles, especially in developing countries, hampering effective and efficient cooperation and productivity. Even though organizations in the form of cooperatives could help overcome some of the challenges of facilitating smallholders’ cooperation, they still suffer from structural problems. Further, in many countries, a lack of formal mechanisms to enforce contractual agreements exists. Given such challenges, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) have already proven to provide alternative forms of governance independent of formal contracts or intermediaries. Therefore, this study follows the design science research paradigm to design, develop, and evaluate a decentralized autonomous organization in the agricultural sector that makes use of cooperative principles. This cooperative-oriented DAO is governed by smart contracts and technically enabled by block-chain technology as the underlying infrastructure. Through our developed and evaluated artifact, the AgriDAO, we guide researchers and practitioners on how such a cooperative-oriented DAO could look to solve existing problems related to smallholders and cooperatives. Additionally, we present eight design principles that will guide the development of cooperative-oriented DAOs. Finally, our research shall initiate lively discussion and extensive exploration of this new form of organization.