LAUSR

The number of farmer cooperatives in the United States is declining, but empirical investigations of cooperative firm survival have been scarce. With demographic, financial, and strategic characteristics as possible explanations, we conduct survival analysis in relation to 950 U.S. farmers cooperatives for the 2005–2018 period. Following the results of our Cox proportional hazard regressions, we find (a) relatively young and old farmer cooperatives are more susceptible to exit; (b) the relationship of membership size to the survival rate of farmer cooperatives is U‐shaped; (c) farmer cooperatives with intangible asset portfolios have lower survival probabilities; and (d) the survival function of farmer cooperatives is not explained significantly by efficiency, leverage, or liquidity. Overall, we use our findings to inform recommendations in terms of cooperative firm behavior, in particular in relation to member heterogeneity and strategic orientation.