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

Abstract

The centrality of user‐members in cooperatives and cooperatives' embeddedness in their community and in a global network influence positively their resilience in times of crisis, as illustrated by cases of cooperatives that acted entrepreneurially during the COVID‐19 crisis. Cooperatives are hybrid organizations that maximize value, instead of profit. They are owned, governed, and controlled by their members. They are more resilient than the conventional enterprises in times of crisis, thanks to their peculiar governance characteristics that ensure member centrality. Next to member centrality, the embeddedness of cooperatives in their local environment and a global movement enhances mission centrality as well as trust and solidarity among their members, local communities, and other cooperatives.

When workers matter most: a study of worker cooperatives and the prioritization of workers through COVID-19

“…Changes noted include moving to virtual/remote services, shifting to providing essential services, moving services outdoors to meet regulations, closing brick and mortar locations, enacting safety measures and increasing production. This mirrors case studies of cooperative adaptation internationally, which have found that cooperatives benefit from their long-term orientation and strong sense of identity that typically finds them more highly embedded in their markets and the global movements and communities they are a part of (Billiet et al, 2021). These studies suggest that this embeddedness facilitates the mobilization of proactive and practical social innovations as a result of the cooperative's ability to anticipate and adapt to economic change that not only position the enterprise for greater resilience, but the communities they serve as well.…”

“…Per this principle, worker cooperatives demonstrated deep cooperation with other cooperatives during the pandemic. Solidarity amongst the cooperative community was observed globally throughout the pandemic, exemplifying a systems approach to resilience (Billiet et al, 2021). Systems theory posits that the strength of an overall system such as the economy or a particular ecosystem within it is dependent on the ability of each constituent part to survive under pressure and on strong links and interdependence amongst constituent parts which make the system resilient to shock (Thukrai, 2021).…”

CHATogether: a novel digital program to promote Asian American Pacific Islander mental health in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

“…PAR in turn incorporates cooperativism , a modified economy model where the program is composed of individuals who are part of a collective member-based ownership [ 25 ]. In this cooperative alliance approach, youth and adult volunteers partner based on shared values, goals, and passions to bring positive influences to their communities at a time of crisis [ 25 ]. In CHATogether , members draw on their strengths, talents, and interests and use the guiding principle of altruism to help address AAPI mental health and anti-Asian sentiment.…”

Sustainability project partnerships in times of crisis: conceptual framework and implications for stakeholder integration

“…On the economic dimension, for example, the pandemic has led to disruptions of supply chains, job losses and business closures, thereby revealing low resilience of highly complex value chains (Thukral, 2021; Carmine et al , 2021; Verbeke, 2020). With regard to the social dimension, the crisis has exposed grievances in working conditions and exploitation in some sectors (Billiet et al , 2021; Crane and Matten, 2020). It relentlessly shows the vulnerability of health systems and also reveals socioeconomic inequalities (Bapuji et al , 2020; Wachtler et al , 2020).…”