WP 94 | 17 A Knowledge-based Vision of the Agricultural Cooperative: The St. Ursula Case
Sant’Orsola is an agricultural cooperative located in the province of Trento, an area in northeastern Italy that accounts for 1 percent of the entire national territory. In Italy, Sant’Orsola is the leading company in the small fruit trade, with a market share of around 45 percent. This case study highlights the potential that the agricultural cooperative can have in developing and fostering a social organization of production and dissemination of knowledge and innovation in agriculture. Indeed, St. Ursula has been able to develop a set of organizational principles (a standard language and code) that are functional for the integration of strategic knowledge for small fruit production. This work thus brings out a possible unexplored advantage of the cooperative form in the agribusiness sector.
