Success/Failure 

Keys to Success in Value-Added Agriculture – Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and ATTRA – Describes success factors for value-added business ventures.

Success Factors for Organizing and Operating New Agribusiness or for Entering into Joint Ventures – Western Illinois University – Three essentials for a successful business.

Success Factors for New Generation Cooperatives – Oklahoma State University Extension -- This fact sheet reports how managers of New Generation Cooperatives rate factors influencing the success of New Generation Cooperatives.

Keys to Success in Value-added Agriculture – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service -- Important lessons they learned in adding value to their farm products and marketing directly to consumers.

What Business Winners Do Right, Where Business Losers Go Wrong – University of Florida Extension -- A logical strategy for improving business performance would involve avoiding the characteristics of business losers while emulating the characteristics of business winners.

Strengthening Agricultural Cooperatives: An Inquiry into Expert Beliefs – Center for Cooperatives, University of California -- Report on factors believed by experts to be important to the success of cooperatives. Includes a survey of cooperative experts to assess their beliefs about selected characteristics affecting success and failure of cooperatives.

Positioning California's Agricultural Cooperatives for the Future – University of California – Although cooperative principles can constrain cooperatives, various cooperatives have implemented innovative structures to ensure their viability.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Iowa Small Business Development Centers – Categorizing businesses in these three categories.

Top Ten Reasons Small Businesses Fail – AllBusiness -- About half of all small businesses fail within the first four years.

Business Examples

The Bankruptcy of Tri Valley Growers: What Went Wrong and What Can We Learn From It? – University of California – Many questions have been raised regarding the demise of California leading food-processing cooperatives.  A recent study provides some answers.

Lessons from a Failed Cooperative: The Rice Growers Association Experience – University of California -- Identifies causes of the cooperatives closure and provides viewpoints on difficulties other Californian cooperatives may face.