Cooperatives are formed by the collective efforts of various actors pursuing common goals, enabling competition with stronger rivals. In Brazil, there is a strong relationship between agricultural cooperatives and politics, with their involvement focused on competing for regulations, information, and access to capital. However, little is known about the effects of this involvement. In this paper, we draw on collective action theory to investigate the individual and collective corporate political activities adopted by Brazilian agricultural cooperatives. Corporate political activity (CPAs) are a subfield of nonmarket strategy (NMS) that addresses actions firms develop outside the market arena to improve their outcomes and achieve competitive advantage. This study focuses on CPAs of Brazilian agricultural cooperatives, which account for over 48% of national agricultural production. We argue that collective CPAs are more effective for these cooperatives, as they enhance their representativeness and legitimacy, facilitating access to capital. To support our argument, we conducted a quantitative study using panel data from 394 Brazilian agricultural cooperatives. The results demonstrate the significance of collective CPA for accessing financing from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and contributing to collective action theory by offering a political perspective. Moreover, the study enriches CPA literature by identifying two innovative collective CPA tactics: affiliation with central cooperatives and the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB). Lastly, the study highlights the importance of cooperation for individual and collective outcomes in practical settings.

中文翻译：

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独如一滴水，聚如海：合作社中的企业政治活动

合作社是由追求共同目标的各个参与者的集体努力组成的，从而能够与更强大的竞争对手进行竞争。在巴西，农业合作社与政治之间存在着密切的关系，其参与的重点是争夺法规、信息和获得资本的机会。然而，人们对这种参与的影响知之甚少。在本文中，我们利用集体行动理论来研究巴西农业合作社采取的个人和集体企业政治活动。公司政治活动 (CPA) 是非市场战略 (NMS) 的一个子领域，旨在解决公司在市场领域之外采取的行动，以改善其成果并获得竞争优势。本研究重点关注巴西农业合作社的注册会计师，该合作社占全国农业产量的 48% 以上。我们认为，集体注册会计师对这些合作社更有效，因为它们增强了合作社的代表性和合法性，有利于获得资本。为了支持我们的论点，我们使用 394 个巴西农业合作社的面板数据进行了定量研究。结果证明了集体 CPA 对于从巴西开发银行 (BNDES) 获得融资以及通过提供政治视角为集体行动理论做出贡献的重要性。此外，该研究通过确定两种创新的集体 CPA 策略丰富了 CPA 文献：隶属于中央合作社和巴西合作社组织 (OCB)。最后，该研究强调了在实际环境中合作对于个人和集体成果的重要性。