Cooperatives have gained prominent attention in recent years as strategic elements to achieve sustainable economic development and greater social cohesion in the context of neoliberal globalization. This article explores, theoretically, the current challenges and opportunities for cooperatives to develop successfully in the globalizing economy. To this end, we provide an analytical, critical review of the key bibliography concerning some fundamental aspects that shape the relationship between economic globalization and cooperatives, an issue that has been generally neglected by previous literature. Three key fields are addressed: 1) the viability of cooperatives, based on their strengths and possible weaknesses, under current globalization; 2) the role of these organizations in promoting the local development and stability of local communities; and 3) the tensions and potentialities that internationalization entails for cooperatives. Based on the analytical review and the organization of the literature, we propose an agenda for further research. This includes some hypotheses and strategies for testing them that would be essential to assess the role of cooperatives in economic globalization, and sheds light on key areas for future research that could provide a better understanding of the complexity surrounding the relationship between globalization and cooperatives.

This article provides an in-depth, longitudinal analysis combining real-time and retrospective data on a set of Mondragon's industrial cooperatives that are organized as international groups. We examine the life cycle of these international cooperative groups, which is expected to evolve differently to that of small-and mediumsized cooperatives that operate exclusively on a local scale. The article is theoretically informed by the cooperative life cycle theory, as well as by recent insights from the degeneration and regeneration theses. Our analysis yields an intricate picture of the evolution of cooperatives faced with a 'grow-or-die' dichotomy. On the one hand, our findings reject the highly simplistic and deterministic view of the degeneration thesis by demonstrating that these cooperatives can mobilize resources to revitalize cooperative values and practices. On the other, we find that regeneration may not occur in a consistent, sequential fashion as the previous literature suggests, but rather degenerative and regenerative tendencies can occur simultaneously, even leading to long-lasting, unresolvable situations. In light of this, the article asks future research to draw on power-aware and politically informed approaches for further understanding of how cooperatives manage the tensions at each organizational stage of their life cycle, and of which organizational actors benefit, and how, from reversing some degenerative tendencies while maintaining others intact.

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Drawing on qualitative research and longitudinal data on two Mondragon multinational cooperatives, the authors examine the multinational expansion of these coops and the diffusion of the cooperative model's employment practices to their subsidiaries in Brazil, China, Slovakia, France, and Poland. The results show that international expansion can radically transform the organizational architecture of coops and exacerbate dilemmas about how to put their hallmark values into practice. Moreover, the findings reveal a fragmented and inconsistent introduction of the cooperative model overseas. Work organization practices are homogeneous across the various sites, whereas job security, training, and pay equity practices are not. Core cooperative practices (i.e., employee participation in ownership, profit sharing, and general management) have not been implemented in any foreign operation. The study illustrates how market influences, institutions, and macro-and micro-politics shape the transfer of employment practices. O ver the past two decades or so, an increasing range of organizations that are not simply capitalist firms driven by shareholder value, such as state-owned enterprises, firms controlled by sovereign wealth funds,