Source: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI submitted to NRP
FORMAL AND INFORMAL INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS ON RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0233868
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Feb 1, 2013
Project End Date
Jan 31, 2018
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
(N/A)
COLUMBIA,MO 65211
Performing Department
Social Sciences
Non Technical Summary
Rural households and rural communities face ever increasing challenges in finding ways to compete economically in an extremely competitive global evironment. Identifying strategies for rural households and communities to become more entrepreneurial, both at the household or collective (i.e., community economic development organization or agricultural cooperative) levels is a critical national goal. This research project focuses on examining the extent to which any of the following factors affect the ability of households and communities to become more entrepreneurial: (1) differences in the ways in which informal institutions enhance or hinder the ability of local residents to work together; (2) how changes in formal institutional arrangements by which governments at different levels either enable or constrain entrepreneurial activities through policies on land tenure, credit, third party enforcement of contracts, enabling legislation for agricultural cooperatives, etc.; (3) if the development of collective entrepreneurship, through small farmer cooperatives provides a significant boost to the local civic culture, which, in turn, increases household hopefulness about the future and, in turn, enhances the development of a risk taking entrepreneurial outlook; (4) the extent which local and regional differences in culture versus formal enabling legislation may affect entrepreneurial behavior and attitudes; and (5) if formal institutional changes in support of market liberalization affects the participation of women in agriculture, including decision-making roles. The research project will analyze 21 surveys of rural households that the investigator has collected in rural regions in Russia, Moldova, Kenya, Uganda and the United States.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
6076030308020%
8016050308040%
8036050308040%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 801 - Individual and Family Resource Management; 607 - Consumer Economics;

Subject Of Investigation
6030 - The farm as an enterprise; 6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
This project is designed to develop an integrated approach to the ways in which rural household and community entrepreneurship is affected by formal and informal institutional arrangements . The analysis will deal with macro-, mezzo- and micro-levels of analysis. The theoretical approach to achieving this goal is drawn from the complementary, but as yet not fully integrated, perspectives of New Institutional Economics and New Institutional Sociology. The former focuses on formal institutional arrangements (e.g., property rights, market failures, contractual and other enabling legislation), while the latter focuses on informal institutional arrangements (e.g., informal social networks and social capital). The primary goal of the project is to empirically test specific propositions derived from each of the respective theories and identify specific linkages between the formal and informal institutional spheres as they impact on rural household and community entrepreneurship. The investigator's surveys of rural households in diffeent national and regional settings in Russia, Moldova, Kenya, Uganda and the United States, will be used to empirically test hypotheses about linkages between these two spheres. Examples of specific objectives include: (1) specifying the causal direction and strength of relationships between informal and informal structural arrangements and ways in which each affects the other and, in turn, either promotes or hinders the development of rural entrepreneurship; (2) specifying the extent to which formal institutional changes in support of liberalizing markets and/or land tenure relations affects the participation of women in agriculture, including decision-making roles; (3) specifying the relationships between formal and informal institutional arrangements in the development of cooperatives for smallholder farmers; and (4) identifying the most effective communication networks (informal social networks, media, cooperative board and annual meetings) for transmiting information about the costs and benefits of different types of individual and collective entrepreneurial activities. The outputs will be a series of papers in refereed journals describing the findings from the project.
Project Methods
The research design for this project is based on 21 sample surveys of rural households in six countries - Russia, Moldova, Kenya, Uganda and the United States - and includes considerable regional variation with each country, as well as some panel or longitudinal indicators. These surveys contain indicators of social networks, household economies, attitudes toward credit and risk and participation in cooperatives as well as subjective indicators of mental health, subjective quality of life, community attachment and general social capital (trust) levels. The micro-household level indicators will be linked to specific mezzo- and macro-level indicators (from governmental and World Bank sources) of formal institutional arrangements (e.g., land tenure, contract enforcement, corruption, time to set up a new business, etc.) at different points in time.

Progress 02/01/13 to 01/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this work has been both social science researchers and development practitioners who are interested in relationships between formal and informal institutions and their effects on rural development. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Journal Articles reported on the "products" page. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Journal Articles reported on the "products" page. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? I am so grateful for NIFA support for my work during the time period listed in this report. My research findings on the impact of formal institutions on community economic development are especially noteworthy, as shown in the "products" section. My work in this regard in sub-saharan Africa has linked to USAID projects in Kenya and Rwanda.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: S. K. Wegren and D. J. OBrien, Introduction to Symposium: The Problem of Smallholders in Communist and Post-Communist Societies. Journal of Agrarian Change 18(4) (2018):869-888.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: G. Glass and D. J. OBrien, "The Role of Household Social Organization in the Structure of Rural Economies: �Comparing Forest Resource Dependent and Agriculturally Dependent Regions in Russia." Rural Sociology 81(4) (2016): 635-654.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: J. E. Meador, D. J. OBrien, M. L. Cook, G. Grothe, L. A. Werner, D. Dianga and R. M. Savoie, Building Sustainable Smallholder Cooperatives in Emerging Market Economies: Findings from a Five-Year Project in Kenya. Sustainability. 8 (7) Published online 11 July 2016.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: D. J. OBrien and M. L. Cook, Smallholder Dairy Entities in East Africa: Challenges and Opportunities - Empirical Findings. Pp. 226-251 in J. Bijman, J. Schuurman and R. Muradian (eds), Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development (Camberley�Surrey, UK: Edward Elgar 2016).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: D. J. OBrien and S. K. Wegren, The Underrepresentation of Women in Leadership Positions in Rural Russia. Rural Sociology 80(1) (2015): 86-107.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: D. J. OBrien, L. Banwart and M. L. Cook, "Measuring the Benefits of Smallholder Farmer Membership in Producer Controlled Vertical Value Chains: Survey Findings from a Development Project in East Africa." Poverty and Public Policy 5(4)(December) (2013): 399-416.


Progress 10/01/17 to 01/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:Researcheers and practitioners who work in rural economic development. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?See journal article in 2018. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? See the publication in the Journal of Agrarian Change in 2018, listed under "products."

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: S. K. Wegren and D. J. OBrien, Introduction to Symposium: The Problem of Smallholders in Communist and Post-Communist Societies. Journal of Agrarian Change 18(4) (2018):869-888.


Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Researchers and students studying the role of instituitions in supporting entrepreneurial activities in rural areas. This includes both domestic (US) and international audiences, especially those conducting research, teaching or extension activities in sub-saharan Africa or post-communist Eastern Europe and Euraasia. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Three doctoral studients completed their dissertations on topics related to institutions and rural development in: Ukraine, Mozambique and Missouri. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Refereed Research Journals reported above. Reports to Missouri Lay Audiences and Policy Makers of Surveys of Rural Missouri Citizens, focusing on their subjective perceptions of what is needed to improve their communities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In 2018 I will focus on the following: (1) Three submissions to refereed journals of research findings in Rwanda on formalgovernment institutions to promote social capital trust and effective networks between smallholder cooperatives, private sector input suppliers and higher level cooperative organizational structures. (2) Survey research, with MU Extension, the Missouri Community College Association and the State Department of Workforce Development, to identify obstacles to rural and urban residents accessing workforce training programs. (3) Submission to a refereed journal, a summary of findings of 10 years of rural community entrepreneurship surveys in Missouri. (4) Completion of two chapters and submission of a book proposal, "Institutional Adjustments to Globalization to Create Healthy Communities."

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Work this reporting year has focused on the followingareas: (1) Continuation of work on institutions and smallholder farm development in post-Soviet Russia (see publications). (2) Survey research in Rwanda on smallholder dairy and maize cooperatives, funded by USAID (publications in process). (3) Participation in Local Works (USAID) projects on civil society development in Morocco. (4) Collaboration with MU Extension on Rural Entrepreneurship development in Missouri. (5) Survey research in Mozambique. (6) Completion of an introduction and expanded outline of a book proposal, "Institutional Adjustments to Globalization to Create Healthy Communities."

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: D. J. O'Brien, "Institutional Adjustment to Globalization to Increase Religious Tolerance, The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society (in press).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: S. K. Wegren and D. J. O'Brien, "Introduction to Symposium: The Problem of Smallholders in Communist and Post-Communist Societies." Journal of Agrarian Change (in press).


Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Agricultural Social Scientists and Practitioners engaged in domestic or international development work. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The opportunity to interact with othre research scientists supported by NIFA. Also, to continue working on Local Works USAID project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Both USAID work overseas as well as USDA work in rural regions of the US are disseminated through local media. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue working on projects in Missouri, with MU Extension, identifying objective and subjective perceived needs of different types of rural areas.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Three publications in 2016. Awarded a sub-contract for Local Works grant from USAID. I am now part of as team working on building local social infrastructure and networks in development projects. This work intersects with USDA projects.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: J. E. Meador, D. J. OBrien, M. L. Cook, G. Grothe, L. A. Werner, D. Dianga and R. M. Savoie, Building Sustainable Smallholder Cooperatives in Emerging Market Economies: Findings from a Five-Year Project in Kenya. Sustainability. 8 (7) Published online 11 July 2016.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: D. J. OBrien and M. L. Cook, Smallholder Dairy Entities in East Africa: Challenges and Opportunities - Empirical Findings. Pp. 226-251 in J. Bijman, J. Schuurman and R. Muradian (eds), Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development (Camberley Surrey, UK: Edward Elgar 2016).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: G. Glass and D. J. OBrien, "The Role of Household Social Organization in the Structure of Rural Economies: Comparing Forest Resource Dependent and Agriculturally Dependent Regions in Russia." Rural Sociology. 81(4) (2016): 635-654.


Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Social Scientists and Development Practitioners, both domestically and overseas, concerned with the role of formal and informal institutions on entrepreneurship. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?These projects have enhanced my experience in working in a variety of contexts in different African countries. Graduate Students who have worked with me on these projects have begun successful applied survey research careers dealing with sustainable development issues.In the past year, this has included Gary Glass Jr,Technical Manager at Management Systems International and Elliot Meador, Researcher, Scottish Rural College, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, We have disseminated reports, through Land O' Lakes International Development, to communities of interest in Kenya and Rwanda. The class surveys on local community economic development groups have been disseminated to those groups and in publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?There are fourmain foci: (1) To complete data analysis and submit a manuscript to a refereed journal from the Smallholder Dairy Project in Kenya and another manuscript on findings from the quasi-experimental social capital, cooperatives and improved inputs study in Rwanda; (2) Begin the startup work on the recently awarded USAID Social Network Conceptualization, Operationalization and Analysis project;(3) submit a manuscript to a refereed journal summarizing ten years of collaboration between my graduate survey research class, MU Extension and local Missouri community development organizations; and (4) analyse the data from the 2017 Rural Missouri Survey, conducted in collaboration with MU Extension (ExCEED Program) and the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Tworefereed journal articles and one book chapter have been published in 2016.New GrantAwarded: LINC LLC (2017) $40,137 to D. J. O'Brien (P.I.) Start-UP Phase of "A Quantitative Social Network Conceptualization, Operationalization and Analysis." This is a Sub-Contract of a multi-year USAID Grant, LocalWorks Program.Currently, I am working on a USAID funded quasi-experimental research design involving social capital and seed cooperatives in the transmission of scientifically improved inputs, seed varieties and fertilizer, to smallholder farmers in Rwanda. I am continuing data analysis and preparation of journal articles from a USAID Dairy Cooperative Development Project in Kenya and a Seed Cooperative Development Project in Rwanda that focuses on social capital trust and network linking smallholder farmers, their cooperatives and private sector input suppliers to produce enhance agricultural techniques. I also am a co-investigator on a USAID seed development project in Mozambique, with a focus on identifying ways to utilize social networks to facilitate adoption of new seed varieties.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2016 Citation: G. Glass and D. J. OBrien, "The Role of Household Social Organization in the Structure of Rural Economies: Comparing Forest Resource Dependent and Agriculturally Dependent Regions in Russia." Rural Sociology. 81(4) (2016): 635-654. J. E. Meador, D. J. OBrien, M. L. Cook, G. Grothe, L. A. Werner, D. Dianga and R. M. Savoie, Building Sustainable Smallholder Cooperatives in Emerging Market Economies: Findings from a Five-Year Project in Kenya. Sustainability. 8 (7) Published online 11 July 2016. D. J. OBrien and M. L. Cook, Smallholder Dairy Entities in East Africa: Challenges and Opportunities - Empirical Findings. Pp. 226-251 in J. Bijman, J. Schuurman and R. Muradian (eds), Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development (Camberley Surrey, UK: Edward Elgar 2016).


Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Rural Sociologists, Agricultural Economists and Development Program Planners who are seeking better empirical indicators to evaluate and improve the performance of smallholder cooperatives in developing countries. Rural Sociologists, Agricultural Economists and Extension Program Planners who are seeking better empirical indicators to evaluate and improve the performance of locality-based economic development programs in Rural America. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Opportunities to conduct research in a variety of countries in Africa and Eastern Europe/Former Soviet Union. Collaborate with Extension faculty on rural economic development surveys and writing grant proposals to NIFA and other sources. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Research findings have been disseminated in scholarly publications. Powerpoint presentations have been provided to smallholder cooperative members in Africa and Locality-Based Economic Development Organizations in Rural America. This spring (2015) my Extension colleague and I will present a Webinar, "Linking Graduate Student Survey Research Training and Locality-based Economic Development Planning: The University of Missouri Program" to domestic audience and Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Complete analysis of baseline and endline data on the Smallholder Dairy Cooperative Develoment Project in East Africa and submit publications to scholarly journals. Analyze data from the baseline Cooperative Seed Alliance Project in Rwanda. Continue collaborative work with MU Extension ExCEED program in developing indicators for assessment of the readiness of Locality-Based Community Economic Development Organizations to Procede with Projects.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Considerable progress was made with respect to the research on the role of formal and informal institutional arrangements on rural household and community entrepreneurship in an experimental USAID cooperative development in East Africa. An in-press publication, to be in printed in 2015, is listed in the publications section of this report. The work in East Africa -Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda - on the 5-year Coooperative Development Program has been proceding according to plan, with endline data collection taking place in the spring of 2015 and analysis of the baseline and endline data in summer and fall 2015. In the spring of 2015, I began work on a "Cooperative Seed Alliance Program" in Rwanda, also funded by USAID. Work on the role of formal and informal institutional parameters on domestic rural economic development, has included an Integrated Extension/Research NIFA proposal - P.D. Sharon K Gulick?, Co-P.D. David J. O'Brien, "Developing Metrics for Wealth-Based Rural Community Economic Development: A Framework for Successful Capacity Building and Sustainable Rural?Develoment," which was ranked at the level next to funded. The proposal was revised and re-submitted in the spring of 2015.

Publications

  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: D. J. OBrien and M. L. Cook, Smallholder Dairy Entities in East Africa: Challenges and Opportunities - Empirical Findings. In J. Bijman, J. Schuurman and R. Muradian (eds), Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development. Edward Elgar (In Press).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: D. J. OBrien and S. K. Wegren, The Underrepresentation of Women in Leadership Positions in Rural Russia. Rural Sociology 80(1) (2015): 86-107.


Progress 02/01/13 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Presentations to the following target audiences during the reporting period: (1) D. J. O’Brien, “A Framework for Researching Causal Links Between Civil Society, Market Institutions and Sustainable Smallholder Farms and Rural Communities in Emerging Economies.” Presented at the Annual Conference of the European Society for Rural Sociology, Working Group 10, Florence, Italy, July 29th to August 1st 2013. (2) D. J. O’Brien, Regular Session Organizer, Community Section, American Sociological Association, New York, August 10-13, 2013. (3) D. J. O’Brien, “Relationships Between Formal Institutional Arrangements, Informal Institutions and Opportunities for Smallholder Farmers in Emerging Economies: Empirical Observations from Post-Soviet Russia and East Africa,” Power and Justice Conference, Sponsored by the Development Section of the American Sociological Association, New York, August 9th, 2013. (4) D. J. O’Brien and M. L. Cook, “Lessons Learned in the Process of Measuring Household & Cooperative Linkages in an East African Development Project,” Economics and Management of Networks (EMNET) Conference, Agidir, Morocco, November 21st-23rd, 2013. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Although not directly providing financial support, the funding for this project has providing opportunities to network with an inter-disciplinary group of scholars and practitioners involved in development work in Africa. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Publications in refereed journals and presentations at professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? (1) Continue data analysis from the East African and Russian research projects. (2) Submit a book chapter and two articles to refereed journals.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The published papers referred to in the last section, dealing with research in Russia and East Africa, as well as the four presentations in Florence, New York and Agadir, Morocco, deal with how the relationship between formal and informal institutional structures affect rural household and community entreperneurship. The rural Russian and rural East African (Kenya and Uganda) socio-economic environments are both post-command economy, but have very different informal institutional arrangements. Thus, research in these two areas provide a unique opportunity to examine the relationship between the different institutional processes that are the focus of my project.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: D. J. OBrien, L. Banwart and M. L. Cook, "Measuring the Benefits of Smallholder Farmer Membership in Producer Controlled Vertical Value Chains: Survey Findings from a Development Project in East Africa." Poverty and Public Policy 5(4)(December) (2013): 399-416.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: K. D. Harris and D. J. OBrien, An Examination of the Inter-Organizational Structure in the Animal Health and Nutrition Bioscience Network. International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology 3(4) (2013): 9-20.