The Co‐operative Advantage

Abstract

IntroductionThe international trend to demutualise ¢nancial services (mutuals and co-operatives), the conversions of farmer co-operatives in many countries, and the well published bid by Lanica to takeover the UK 's largest consumer co-operative, have contributed to a public perception that the co-operative idea is one that belongs to a past generation.Published research and general statistics in annual reports in various sectors of the co-operative movement indicate that although there are signs of growth and development, much of the movement 's recent history has been one of loss of market share and retrenchment. In addition there appear to be widespread popular doubts about the continued relevance of co-operation in the modern world together with demoralisation and a sense of isolation even at the highest levels of co-operative management.The international context of transition economies in eastern Europe, deregulation in much of the rest of the world and globalisation has only increased the competitive pressures on cooperatives in the UK and abroad.However, at the same time, these problems represent an enormous opportunity to respond positively and vigorously. There are numerous examples of co-operative innovation and good practice, and there is a mood of reassessing features of co-operation that`make the di¡erence' in business terms and ethically. Indeed there is a strong sense that good business and high standards can be a winning combination. But the theoretical basis for co-operative advantage is unclear and so cannot inform such activities. It is essential that this is addressed to help tackle the problem and capture the spirit of reasserting cooperative advantage. This paper attempts to strengthen our theoretical understanding of the nature of co-operative advantage and the characteristics of co-operatives that give them an economic and &CIRIEC 2000. Published by Blackwell Publishers,

Trust, Social Capital, and the Coordination of Relationships Between the Members of Cooperatives: A Comparison Between Member-Focused Cooperatives and Third-Party-Focused Cooperatives

“…at the neighborhood level (Degli Antoni and Portale 2011;Evers 2001;Gonzales 2007;Pestoff 2009;Putnam 2000). It can even create positive spillover effects on the local and regional economy and civil society (Putnam 1993;Spear 2000).…”

“…Therefore, founding and maintaining a cooperative requires a group of potential members who would be able to provide the organization with resources which they would access and mobilize through social ties. Thus, cooperatives, in contrast to for-profit organizations, can be seen as organizations that mainly build on the social capital of all their members, who are highly committed to a common goal, as their key resource (Spear 2000;Valentinov 2004). Even in for-profit enterprises, social capital can exist to a certain degree with the benefit of reducing transaction costs (Laville and Nyssens 2001).…”

“…Thus, the social capital of cooperative organizations represents a common-pool resource requiring institutional and governance support (Brandsen and Helderman 2012;Ostrom 1990;Ostrom and Ahn 2003). In fact, the governance structure of a cooperative (Williamson 1996) is essential for the pooling of the social resources of its members through the strengthening of the reciprocity norms that underlie the trust-based relations in cooperatives (Enjolras 2009;Sabatini, Modena and Tortia 2014;Spear 2000;Valentinov 2004). …”

Polycentric Governance Approaches for a Low-Carbon Transition: The Roles of Community-Based Energy Initiatives in Enhancing the Resilience of Future Energy Systems

“…Similarly, it has been shown that cooperatives are generally perceived as trustworthy, given their constraint on the profits distribution and their democratic governance (Hansmann 1996;Ole Borgen 2001). In addition, citizen ownership contributes to the trust capital of CBE initiatives and cooperatives as it provides the guarantee to non-controlling stakeholders that the firm is managed by people who share their interest (Spear 2000). This is consistent with the findings that horizontal networks, where people have equivalent status and power, engender trust because they facilitate exchanges of information and face-to-face communication, whereas hierarchies tend to inhibit information flows due to asymmetric power relationships (Kasperson et al 1999).…”

Social Innovation

“…This is necessary in order to go beyond the empty rhetoric of terms such as 'partnership', 'collaboration' and 'co-operation', and understand how these complex forms of organising are built and maintained (Atkinson, 1999;Hastings, 1996). There has been much discussion on the need for collaboration (OTS, 2009) and co-operation between organisations is given as a core value of some forms of social enterprises such as co-operatives (Spear, 2000) but very little work has been carried out on understanding the process of building these relationships. This chapter examines the context of collaboration with the state for public services, reviews the literature on collaboration and social enterprise, and draws on the literature of interorganisational relationships to present a framework for understanding how collaboration is built and maintained.…”