Social capital and socially responsible procurement in agricultural cooperative: evidence from indonesian coffee

This paper examines how Indonesian coffee cooperatives' social capital is used to implement socially responsible procurement (SRP) with smallholder farmers, and how alignment among these functions shapes SRP depth and durability. A multiple case study of four Indonesian coffee cooperatives was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were analysed abductively, using Social Capital Theory's functional dimension (bonding, bridging, and linking) as the primary analytical lens. Social capital functions as mechanisms in cooperative. SRP practice such as fair pricing, farmer welfare, and quality governance emerges from relational commitment rather than formal policy. Alignment among all three functional types predicts SRP durability. Concentrated bonding capital produces non-institutionalised SRP practices, while loss of linking capital directly reduce SRP scope even when bonding and bridging remain strong. This paper unpacking the cooperative’s role as an important procurement actor in which owned by members, filling the gap of procurement literature that is dominated by large-investor-owned firm relationships with suppliers.