METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING THE RELATIONS IN AGRICULTURAL CONSUMER COOPERATIVES THAT ARE NOT REGULATED BY LEGISLATION
The development of intra-cooperative relations not regulated by state legislation, provided that they are formed in accordance with cooperative principles and values, is considered in the article as one of the most important means of effective forming agricultural consumer cooperation in Russia. The aim of the study is to develop methodological approaches to the study of these economic relations in order to identify in the future those of them that contribute to the filling of institutional voids and are a real economic resource for the progressive development of cooperation. The relationships in question are manifested in economic practice in the form of adherence to certain attitudes, patterns of behavior, rules, beliefs, agreements, etc. They can be both formalized in the internal regulations of the cooperative’s activities, and informal. In an agricultural consumer cooperative, there are two main blocks of relations: the relationship of the cooperative with its members and the relationship between the members of the cooperative. As the main tools for obtaining information, it is proposed to use methods of studying documents (charter and internal regulations of the cooperative’s activities) and polling. For the survey, it is proposed to form several groups of respondents: ordinary members of cooperatives, representatives of their governing bodies, heads of cooperative organizations at the regional level, specialists of cooperative revision unions, competent representatives of science. The methods used and the content of the surveys differ depending on the categories of respondents. Thus, it is advisable to conduct polls of experts from the scientific community in the form of a conversation, while a significant part of the questions should be focused on identifying economic practices that are useful from the standpoint of ensuring the viability of a cooperative enterprise. The questionnaire is also recommended to include questions aimed at identifying informal intra-cooperative relationships that conflict with the principles of organizing cooperative activities and lead to the liquidation of the cooperative or its transformation into other forms. In the proposed answers to some questions, it is advisable to include information about the forms of implementation of intra-cooperative relations useful for the development of a cooperative, obtained on the basis of studying advanced foreign experience. The approaches proposed in the article are aimed at considering intra-cooperative relations not regulated by legislation as one of the full-fledged objects of scientific research that contribute to increasing the viability of an agricultural consumer cooperative.