Resumen de Information and communication technologies as development tools for second-tier cooperatives

Adoración Mozas Moral , Enrique Bernal Jurado, Domingo Fernandez Uclés, Miguel Jesús Medina Viruel

• The Spanish olive oil sector is the world leader in terms of olive oil production. This sector primarily comprises companies in the social economy, especially cooperatives, which account for more than 75% of production. The emergence of second-tier cooperatives has enabled the implementation of one of the recurring recommendations by scholars, namely enhancing the commercialization of olive oil through greater concentration and integration of supply. This improved commercialization is made possible in part by the greater capacity of these companies to invest in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and human capital specialized in managing these ICTs. The use of the Internet gives these companies access to a market of unparalleled dimensions. In light of this situation, this study examines the factors that explain a higher level of online sales activity by these firms. To do so, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used. The results show that age, size, the management’s ICT training, social network activity, and outsourced ICT management are associated with greater online sales of olive oil by second-tier cooperatives.