International audienceIn the recent financial crisis period, when traditional economic organizations were not able to meet stakeholders’ expectations, not-for profit organizations such as cooperatives became an optimal solution as they are expected to serve social and economic performance simultaneously. This theoretical assumption is questioned based on the downturn pressures that may weaken cooperatives’ social performance in favor of economic performance. This degeneration process (Cornforth, et al., 1998) is countered by some traditional cooperatives that have developed regeneration dynamics. The aim of our study is to explore how small and medium cooperatives face degeneration and develop regeneration dynamics in periods of crisis. To fulfil the objective of the paper four small and medium Basque and Breton cooperatives are studied in depth

Finally, the paper identifies RFO institutionalization required to face the intrinsic problems of transmitting RFO in growing families.

Purpose Most literature on ambidexterity has focused on large firms and on the influence of internal issues in this strategy, that is, organizational structures, top management integration, or internal knowledge management processes (Lutbatkin et al., 2006; Chang et al., 2011; Lee and Huang, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to assess small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’ ambidexterity strategies during economic recession periods in comparison with those of large firms and identify the managerial external capabilities which are associated with the development of SMEs’ ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach A multinomial logit model and a probit model are proposed and tested using data collected from 2,150 Spanish firms during the period of 2009-2013. Findings The data analysis reveals that SMEs develop more ambidextrous innovation strategies in recession periods than larger firms do. Moreover, two managerial external capabilities have been identified as drivers of SMEs’ ambidextrous behavior in crisis periods: first, the capability of top management to anticipate scenarios; and second, the capacity to acquire adequate external resources through co-operation. Practical implications The results show that SME managers wanting to develop ambidextrous strategies in recession periods have to forecast scenarios in terms of innovation difficulties and strengthen their resources through co-operation. Implementation of public policy is encouraged to support these capabilities, thus enhancing SME sustainability in uncertain contexts. Originality/value Prior studies have paid little attention to the role of external capabilities. Although their role was revealed as a relevant dimension in the study of SME ambidexterity in adverse contexts by Cao et al. (2010), it remained underexplored. This paper aims to fill this gap.

The concept of responsible ownership was originally developed with reference to large, publicly held firms. However, the relevance of small-and medium-sized closely held firms, such as family firms, in all economies and the specific governance and organisational characteristics of these firms require further examination of the responsible ownership concept and its operationalisation. Based on the existing literature, we define the construct of responsible family ownership to fill this gap in responsible ownership theory. We propose a scale that can be used to assess the responsible family ownership construct in small-and medium-sized family enterprises. The data used in this exploratory study were collected in an ad hoc survey answered by a representative sample of 84 small-and medium-sized family enterprises. The study contributes to the responsible ownership literature by presenting the responsible family ownership construct, a key driver of balance in family and firm systems that is therefore critical to the health of small-and medium-sized family enterprises. In addition, a scale is proposed as a means to operationalise the construct and to derive practical implications for the governance of this kind of firms.

RESUMENLa Responsabilidad Social Proactiva (RSP) juega un papel relevante en la construcción de la ventaja competitiva y en el éxito organizativo de las cooperativas, organizaciones basadas en principios cooperativos. El desarrollo de la RSP es especialmente complicado en los períodos de recesión. Este artículo examina cómo impactan las crisis económicas en las cooperativas a distintos niveles y pretende identificar cómo la RSP puede recuperarse. Para ahondar en el comportamiento organizativo, se ha empleado el enfoque de estudio de caso aplicado a tres cooperativas industriales situadas en el País Vasco (España).El artículo identifica tres fuentes de barreras de la RSP en el contexto de las cooperativas y propone dos condiciones para el desarrollo de la RSP. La originalidad del artículo radica en que amplía la investigación en la responsabilidad de las cooperativas durante los períodos de crisis, examina la "caja negra" de las cooperativas para detectar problemas que dañan su RSP y propone las palancas de RSP de las cooperativas, palancas que pueden ser trasladadas a otros contextos organizativos. and challenging in recession periods. This paper studies how economic crisis impacts in different levels of cooperatives, and it aims to identify how PSR can be restored. In order to explore the organizational behaviour, the case study approach was selected to analyse three manufacturing cooperatives located in the Basque Country (Spain).The paper identifies three sources of hinders of PSR in cooperative context and it proposes two conditions to develop PSR. The originality of the paper relies on pushing the research of the organizations' responsibility face to the crisis periods, diving into the cooperatives black box to catch the problems hindering their PSR, and proposing PSR leverages in cooperatives.