dr. WJJ (Jos) Bijman

Jos Bijman is an expert on business collaboration, in particular related to innovation, sustainability and quality improvement in agrifood value chains. Jos Bijman has a special interest in the role of cooperatives and producer organisations (POs). His research focuses on how organisational characteristics (such as internal governance; ownership structures, member commitment; board-management relationship) affect the outcomes for individual businesses, groups of businesses (like cooperatives) and the networks of business (such as value chains). Jos Bijman is also an expert on contract farming arrangements and how these contribute to improving quality, innovation and sustainability.

Jos Bijman is project manager of the EU H2020 project CO-FRESH "Co-creating sustainable and competitive fruits and vegetables’ value chains in Europe" (2020-2024). The focus of this project is on how business collaboration can improve sustainable innovation in food value chains. One case study in the project deals with the protein transition, notably the potential of faba beans.

Jos Bijman is the editor of a 2016 book on cooperatives and producer organisations in developing and emerging countries: Cooperatives, Economic Democratization and Rural Development. The key message of this book was that cooperatives in developing countries are transforming from public-service oriented organisations, providing goods and services to the whole community, into member-service oriented organisations, providing goods and services mainly to their producer-members.