摘要：Excessive leverage is one of the most important problems facing Italian agricultural cooperativesas the competition in the EU intensifies. An empirical study of 500 agricultural cooperatives supportsthe hypothesis that cooperatives characterized as having "powerful managers" have a capital structurethat is significantly different from the "nonpowerful manager" cooperatives. Powerful managercooperatives were less leveraged and had a long term strategy that focused on minimizing financialrisk by increasing their equity/asset ratio. The result of this strategy is an increased probability of longterm international competitiveness. . 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
