The member wears Four Hats: A member identification framework for co-operative enterprises

Abstract

Cooperative and mutual enterprises (CMEs) are organisations in which buyers or suppliers are also the owners, shareholders and members of a community of purpose. Member heterogeneity and commitment have been reported in the literature, but the drivers of member commitment remain poorly understood. This paper proposes that members identify with their CME as patrons, investors, owners, and community members; wearing "Four Hats" (4Hs). A case study analysis of three Australian producer cooperatives examined directors and managers perceptions of factors influencing members' commitment and delivery of a member value proposition. The 4Hs emerge as stable patterns and the cross-case analysis illustrates their strategic importance and link to member value proposition.

The resilience of the cooperative model: How do cooperatives deal with the COVID‐19 crisis?

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“…Moreover, cooperative's members are also users of the enterprise in that they are its employees, suppliers, or customers, and so on. (Mamouni Limnios et al, 2018). The nature of the members' role defines the type of cooperative (Nelson et al, 2016).…”

“…As highlighted above, cooperatives are user‐centered (Hansmann, 1999); the relationship between them hold with their members is the priority, even in times of crisis. This relationship is manifold since a cooperative's members are simultaneously owners of the enterprise, control it, and stand in a use–transaction relationship with the organization (Mamouni Limnios et al, 2018). Structural cooperative characteristics, including collective ownership and democratic governance, help to deal with this unique but complicated relationship.…”

Resisting Colonization: Worker Cooperatives’ Conceptualization and Behaviour in a Habermasian Perspective

“…Following principles 1, 2 and 3, workers own and control the organization. Beyond the redefinition of roles among organizational stakeholders in comparison to conventional enterprises, this role concentration generates complexity with regard to individual identity (Mamouni Limnios et al, 2018; Nelson et al, 2016). Workers, whose role traditionally remains confined to the lifeworld, endorse roles and identities that are usually associated with the system (i.e.…”

Influence of Internal Marketing Dimensions on Organizational Commitment: An Empirical Application in Ecuadorian Co-Operativism

“…Because of this, it is necessary to discover the motivations which are behind the appearance of these organizations, as well as analyzing their peculiar characteristics, with the aim of providing a solid basis to reinforce the presence of a liberal economy that is even more globalized. These social entities had, historically, given an appropriate response to the specific and desirable socioeconomic needs of stakeholders (Limnios et al, 2018).…”