@masterthesis{Ostrick, type = {Bachelor Thesis}, author = {Ostrick, Manuela}, title = {The challenge of professionalization vs. social capital orientation in agricultural cooperatives- A case study of agricultural supply cooperatives in North-Rhine-Westphalia}, school = {Hochschule Rhein-Waal}, abstract = {Many studies have been conducted in the northern part of Europe, especially in Sweden. This thesis is conducted to get an impression on the actual position of cooperatives in Germany. To be specific in North-Rhine-Westphalia where several cooperatives have been founded and become major player in the agribusiness sector. However, this was not by accident, but a response to the requirements of the famers in this region. Those coops have been developed in the M{\"u}nsterland, a region north-west located in NRW which is famous for their intensive livestock-business and small amount of arable land, and in general is the home of small, structured family-farms. In the past, cooperatives have been the only one to provide information and products to the farmers in this region. Due to those circumstances the farmers in this region have a strong attachment to "their coops". As a result of this specialty several joint ventures of cooperatives have been observed. The objective of this thesis is to examinate the perspective of social capital orientation of two expert-groups which can be shared into two different experts-groups prominent supply cooperatives in North Rhine-Westphalia.}, language = {en} }