Prof. Dr. Michael L. Cook

Professor in Cooperative Leadership

Michael L. Cook is the Robert D. Partridge Endowed Professor in Cooperative Leadership in the Division of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia, U.S.A and Executive Director of the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership. His primary research examines organizational structures, strategies, and governance of patron-owned and controlled enterprise, including comparative work in more than 50 countries. Currently, Dr. Cook is coordinating development of a global network of scholars and practitioners with interest in understanding the strengths and challenges confronted by leaders of patron-owned organizations. This research and outreach work is embedded in Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICL) programs where he leads a team that has conducted 400 programs and workshops to over 5000 cooperative leaders worldwide. He has authored/co-authored more than 100 scientific publications. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He also served for 12 years in senior management positions with three global enterprises, two of them cooperatives, and has occupied board positions with numerous cooperatives, subsidiaries, and associations. In May 2012, Cook was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame at the National Press Club, Washington, DC.

Research Interests

Agribusiness management, market structure, cooperative theory.

Recent Key Publications

• Franken, J.R.V and M.L. Cook, “Informing Measurement of Cooperative Performance”, Interfirm Networks – Cooperatives, Franchising and Strategic Alliances, eds. Josef Windsperger, G. Cliquet, G. Hendrikse, and T. Ehrmann, Springer, 2014, forthcoming.
• Cook, M. L., R. Savoie, and R. Almog, “Agribusiness as the Anchor: The Role of KijaniAgro”, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, Vol. 17, Special Issue B, 2014.
• Cook, M.L., “Stakeholder Participation in Cooperative Governance in North America”, Cooperative Innovations in China and the West, ed. Caroline Gijselinckx, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
• Plunkett, B., F.R Chaddad, and M.L. Cook, “Challenge Dairy Cooperative 2000-2010: In Pursuit of Control of the Last Litre of Milk”, Sustainable Cooperative Enterprise: Case Studies of Organizational Resilience in the Cooperative Business Model, ed. Tim Mazzorol, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.
• O’Brien, D., 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 & Public Policy, Vol. 5, No. 4. 2013.
• Chaddad, F.R. and M.L. Cook, “Legal Frameworks and Property Rights in US Agricultural Cooperatives: The Hybridization of Cooperative Structures”, The Cooperative Business Movement 1950 to the Present, ed. Patrizia Battilani and Harm G. Schroter, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• Cook, M. L. and M. J. Burress, “The Impact of CEO Tenure on Cooperative Governance”. Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 34. 2013.
• Iliopoulos, C., Cook, M.L., Hendrikse, G.W.J., and A. Chymis. 2012. Support for Farmers’ Cooperatives; Experiences of non-EU OECD Countries. Wageningen: Wageningen UR.
• Burress, M.J., K. Livingston, and M.L. Cook, “Board Processes, Board Engagement and Cooperative Health: A Descriptive Summary of Survey Findings”, The Cooperative Accountant, 2012.
• King, R., M. Boehlje, M.L. Cook, and S.T. Sonka, “Agribusiness Economics and Management”, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 92(2): 554-570, 2010.
• Plunkett, B., F.R. Chaddad, and M.L. Cook, “Ownership Structure and Incentives to Invest: Dual Structured Irrigation Cooperatives in Australia”, J. Institutional Economics. 6(2): 261-80, 2010.
• Cook, M.L., P. Klein, and C. Iliopoulos, “Contracting and Organization in Food and Agriculture”, in New Institutional Economics, A Guidebook, ed. E. Brousseau and J.M. Glachant, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Burress, M.J., M.L. Cook, and P.G. Klein, “The Clustering of Organizational Innovation: Developing Governance Models for Vertical Integration”, International Food & Agribusiness Management Review, Vol. 11(4), 2008.
• Cook, M.L. and B. Plunkett, “Collective Entrepreneurship: An Emerging Phenomenon in Producer-Owned Organizations”, J. Agric. & Appl. Econ.38(2), 2006, 421-8.
• Klein, P. and M.L. Cook, “T.W. Schultz and the Human-Capital Approach to Entrepreneurship”, Rev. Agric. Econ., 28(3) 2006, 344-50.
• Chaddad, F.R., M.L. Cook and T. Heckelei, “Testing for the Presence of Financial Constraints in US Agricultural Cooperatives: An Investment Behaviour Approach”, J. Agr. Econ. 56(3), 2005, 385-97.
• Chaddad, F.R. and M.L. Cook, “The Economics of Organization Structure Changes: A U.S. Perspective on Demutualization”, Ann. Public & Coop. Econ., 75(4), 2004, 575-594.
• Cook, M.L. and F.R. Chaddad, “Redesigning Cooperative Boundaries: The Emergence of New Models”, Am. J. Agr. Econ., 86(5), 2004, 1249-53.
• Cook, M.L. and Barry, P., “Organizational Economics in the Food, Agribusiness, and Agricultural Sectors”, Am. J. Agr. Econ., 86(3) (August 2004): 740-43.
• Cook, M.L., Chaddad F. and Iliopoulos C., “Advances in Cooperative Theory Since 1990: A Review of Agricultural Economics Literature”, in: Restructuring Agricultural Cooperatives, ed. G.W.J. Hendrikse, Erasmus University Press, Haveka, 2004, pp 65-90.
• Sykuta, M.E. and M.L. Cook, “A New Institutional Economics Approach to Contracts and Cooperatives”, Am. J. Agr. Econ., 83(5), 2001, 1271-7.
• Lazzarini, S., F. Chaddad, and M.L. Cook, “Integrating Supply Chain And Network Analyses: The Study Of Netchains”, Journal on Chain & Network Science, 1(1), 2001, 7-22.