Croatian co-operatives’ story of revival: overcoming internal obstacles

Abstract

We conducted semi-structured interviews with leaders or members of 45 Croatian co-operatives covering the different types of co-operatives from all historical regions to identify six main groups of internal obstacles to stronger development of co-operatives in Croatia: 1) those stemming from the “dual” nature of co-operatives, 2) free riding, 3) lack of innovative management, 4) insufficient focus on vertical cooperation among co-operatives, 5) lack of strategic steps toward a division of labor and horizontal cooperation, and 6) underdeveloped cooperation maps and protocols. Upon discussing each of these with a view on how the respective obstacles could be overcome, we conclude that through combined top-down and bottom-up efforts much can still be done to revive hundreds of local co-operatives that have barely survived or are inactive. The co-operatives themselves should be more pro-active in establishing bottom-up platforms for cooperation. Among possible improvements of governmental actions, we particularly recommend extending targeted project grants to also cover specific activities intended to enhance horizontal and vertical cooperation.