Gregory McKee is Director of the Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives and Assistant Professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University. His research and teaching focuses on how participants in a market can coordinate in order to improve their welfare. Currently, Dr. McKee teaches a semester-length course on cooperative business management to undergraduate students at three universities in North Dakota and a course in game theory and strategy for agribusiness management. Recent research has focused on determinants of profitability for North Dakota agricultural cooperatives and credit unions as well as authoring several case studies about significant management decisions made by cooperatives headquartered in the Upper Great Plains. 

Abstract: This paper examines the profitability of a balanced sample of 58 North Dakota farm supply and grain marketing cooperatives over the period 2003-2007. Our findings reveal that increased liquidity tended to allow farm supply cooperatives to operate more efficiently, but reduced the efficiency of cooperatives which provide farm supply and grain marketing services. These results suggest strategies for cooperatives during times of illiquidity and other credit constraints for achieving profitability objectives.