Agricultural cooperatives began to emerge in China since the mid-1980s, as a new form of agricultural production that better handles challenges brought by market shifts and globalization.

Little research has been done to understand factors that decide the governance structure types (GSTs) of cooperatives in China.

Using large sample data from three typical provinces, this paper examines the mechanism of situation features on the GSTs of cooperatives.

The results revealed that the technical and institutional environment features have significant impacts on the GSTs of cooperatives.