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Our article sheds light on two enduring debates within the cooperative literature: the degeneration thesis and the spillover thesis. While the degeneration thesis suggests cooperatives are doomed to failure, the spillover thesis suggests otherwise, contending that the experience of democratic control furthers social change beyond the cooperative itself. By turning to critical theory, we are able to bring new insights into these conversations. The early Frankfurt School placed a primacy on the subjectivity of social actors, arguing that capitalism serves to impact the consciousness, rationality, and depth-psychology of subjects, acculturating them to market societies. By exploring this in conjunction with the literature on cooperatives, we are able to add weight to the degeneration thesis and to demand further concessions from advocates of the spillover thesis. Ultimately, the article stresses the lack of importance placed to date on subjectivity within cooperative studies and argues that this needs to be remedied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of Tugan-Baranovsky's (1916) seminal study about the working of cooperatives in a capitalist environment, which, due to historical and linguistic circumstances, has left only a limited trace in the subsequent economic literature in the Western world. He claimed to have provided the then only full analytical and historical account of economic cooperation in its several forms, especially producer and consumer cooperatives, and their impact on their members' welfare. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that cooperative organisations gradually occupied again the research agenda of economists under the guise of 'labor-managed firms'. Tugan's treatise on cooperation has been mentioned in that literature to a limited extent only, in connection with the issue of the life-cycle of producer cooperatives. Tugan's economic treatment of cooperatives is discussed here as part of his broader social and political views of capitalism and socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the significant challenges facing cooperative businesses is leveraging networks and connections efficiently. Cooperative Business Networks (CBN) like the Indonesian Jaringan Usaha Koperasi (JUK) aim to integrate buyers and sellers, reduce distribution costs, and strengthen market channels for SMEs. However, JUK has not been fully optimized, with cooperation primarily occurring between secondary forms of cooperatives rather than at a broader network level. This study explores how consumer cooperatives can better serve their members by partnering with producer cooperatives within the cooperative supply chain. It investigates the factors driving these partnerships and the success of cooperative networks. The qualitative methodology used includes case studies and in-depth interviews with key personnel from cooperatives in Depok City, West Java, Indonesia. Findings suggest that successful collaboration in the supply chain requires producer cooperatives to meet specific quality and administrative standards. The research has both theoretical and practical implications, offering insights into improving cooperative relationships and suggesting the need for further quantitative studies to generalize findings across different cultural contexts in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Internacional y Comparada de Relaciones Laborales y Derecho del Empleo is the property of ADAPT University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Estudios Cooperativos is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Egypt has a long history with consumer and producer cooperatives that dates to the late 1950s and till today. Both types of cooperatives are government-owned and operated. While consumer cooperatives evolved smoothly over the years with a significant improvement in effectiveness with the economy gradually switching to a complete market system, producer cooperatives suffer from lack of effectiveness. Farmers complaints about lack of effectiveness of the agricultural cooperatives is a popular debate in Egypt. The main objective of this study is to quantity an effectiveness measure taking into consideration the points of views of the farmers and the cooperative managers. The agricultural cooperatives located in Nasr Canal Command Area of New Nubariya of Egypt are surveyed via personal interviews. Six cooperative managers and two hundred farmers are interviewed face to face. In assessing effectiveness, the study has extended and modified the Robert Elkin and Mark Molitor model. The effectiveness measure modifications resulted in having a measure of the organization’s degree of effectiveness of agricultural cooperatives through the estimation of four indicators: capital (four items), human resources (four items), administrative (four items), and the cooperative objectives fulfillment (fifteen items). Results show overall effectiveness levels below average with ratios of 42.81% and 46.92% for farmers and managers, respectively. The organizational and administrative indicator being the weakest from the farmers perspective. Cooperative managers cited that the indicators of human resources and capital resources to be the weakest. Both the farmers and the managers commonly conformed that the indicator of the cooperative goals fulfillment to occupy first place in impacting effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on qualitative research and longitudinal data on two Mondragon multinational cooperatives, the authors examine the multinational expansion of these co-ops and the diffusion of the cooperative model's employment practices to their subsidiaries in Brazil, China, Slovakia, France, and Poland. The results show that international expansion can radically transform the organizational architecture of co-ops and exacerbate dilemmas about how to put their hallmark values into practice. Moreover, the findings reveal a fragmented and inconsistent introduction of the cooperative model overseas. Work organization practices are homogeneous across the various sites, whereas job security, training, and pay equity practices are not. Core cooperative practices (i.e., employee participation in ownership, profit sharing, and general management) have not been implemented in any foreign operation. The study illustrates how market influences, institutions, and macro- and micro-politics shape the transfer of employment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This article derives from research on psychosocial risk factors associated with women's work in cooperatives in the Costa Rican Western Region. It should be noted that cooperativism in this area is of long standing and has a marked male tradition. Objective: Therefore, this paper analyzes some elements related to work and gender in six cooperatives with female managers in the western region of Costa Rica. Method: The methodology of the study is qualitative with the application of semi-structured interviews that inquire about the experience of women managers in cooperatives. The information is examined using Critical Discourse Analysis. The types of cooperatives involved, although diverse, have in common that, until before the current management structure, leadership and administration were in the hands of men. The chronological framework of the investigation was developed between August 2019 and March 2020. Results: Among the main findings, the reasons why they were selected as managers in times of crisis stand out, in addition to the different types of violence involved in leading sectors with masculinized structures. It is also relevant that the participants have generated strategies of resistance to such violence, through which they try to transform the working conditions of women in this sector. Conclusions: It can be concluded, based on the scarce research on the cooperative sector with a gender perspective in the region, that it is urgent to learn more about the reality of women cooperative workers in the region, who are making enormous efforts to improve their working conditions and the cooperative model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work analyzes the relationships between cooperative association, fair trade and social sectors such as women, youth, indigenous peoples and the territory, deployed by the small producers of the Cooperativa Agraria Cafetalera Pangoa, of the central Amazon region of Peru, as alternative economic strategies to face the marginalization generated by the capitalist market and deepened by the application of market liberalization policies since the 1990s. The analysis allows a debate on the solidarity economic circuits, relating them to the alternative economic strategies and the social and solidarity economy.

Modern retail markets have grown in Cambodia, but vegetable growers are unlikely to gain benefits from these high value markets (HVMs). Producer cooperatives (PCs) could play a critical role in linking smallholder farmers to HVMs. The purpose of this paper is: (1) to examine the role of PCs in linking vegetable producers to HVMs; and (2) analyse the factors affecting successful participation in HVMs. This study applied a mixed methods approach to PCs selling the members' vegetables to HVMs (PC-HVMs), and PCs selling members' vegetables to traditional markets (TMs) only (PC-TMs). Both groups of PCs provided services to their members (e.g. input, financial, extension services). However, the content and quality of these services were different. PC-TMs emphasised only on support linked to production, while PC-HVMs focused on both production and marketing support. This study indicated that vegetable farming experience, total vegetable produce, and average vegetable prices had a statistically significant influence on producers' participation in HVMs. However, vegetable farm size showed a negatively significant effect on participation in HVMs. As one of the very few empirical studies on PCs in Cambodia the research provides valuable context for further studies. It has developed and tested a framework for analysing the factors affecting successful participation in HVMs and provides an explanation of why some PCs can successfully participate in HVMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shareholder-owned corporations were dominant for much of the 20th century in the United States, yet their numbers are substantially declining in the 21st. This article argues that we are observing a regime shift in the transaction costs of organizing that disfavors traditional corporations. Accompanying this shift is the emergence of low-cost, small-scale production technologies that will allow locally based universal fabrication facilities. In combination, these changes are compatible with new forms of non-corporate enterprise. While corporations are basic units of production in many theories about the economy, they should be regarded as only one hypothesis about how production is and can be organized. Traditional alternatives to the corporation include producer and consumer cooperatives (e.g., Land o' Lakes, REI) and mutuals (e.g., State Farm, Vanguard). More recent possibilities include commons-based peer production (such as Linux and Wikipedia) and "platforms" that connect buyers and sellers (such as Uber and Airbnb). The raw materials are available for more democratic and locally oriented enterprise. Management scholarship has an opportunity to document and encourage this movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mechanics & Advanced Technologies is the property of National Technical University of Ukraine KPI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The authors undertake the first econometric study of efficiency for Eroski, the largest member of the Mondragon group of worker cooperatives. Three types of stores are found within Eroski: 1) cooperatives with significant employee ownership and voice; 2) cooperatives with modest employee ownership and limited voice (known as GESPAs); and 3) conventional stores with no employee ownership. Key data are monthly observations—9,800 for supermarkets and 2,150 for hypermarkets (large superstores combining supermarkets and department stores). By estimating first-difference models, the authors find that hypermarket stores with cooperative ownership have significantly faster sales growth than do GESPA stores. For supermarkets overall, they find no significant differences in performance among the three types of stores. For a subgroup of small supermarkets, however, cooperatives outperform conventional stores. To investigate the mechanisms that help explain why cooperatives perform better, the authors provide additional evidence that takes into account the more extensive opportunities for employee involvement, training, and stronger economic incentives in cooperatives. While cooperative members are better paid than peers in comparable firms, individual data show that job satisfaction is lower for cooperative workers than for GESPA workers. Though this may reflect higher worker expectations in cooperatives, alternatively cooperatives may constitute a “high-stress work system.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the profile of the arts-and-health sector grows and interdisciplinary projects with public outcomes become more common, it is useful to explore roles and ways of working at the interface between different disciplines. The authors analyze the complex role of producer, likely to become increasingly relevant in this landscape. While incorporating aspects of existing roles (e.g. hospital arts manager, cultural venue participatory producer, independent creative producer, public engagement manager), the producer has a very specific raison d'être and could be defined as "relational producer." This role is not well understood and yet central to this field of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the economics of predatory states has been at the center of an emerging discussion, a rich body of literature on predation already exists in the scholarship on post-communist regimes. This paper offers a glimpse into that literature, developing (1) a typology of coercive corporate raiding ("reiderstvo") and (2) a model for understanding the logic of contemporary predatory states. The typology starts from the original form of reiderstvo, carried out by criminal groups ("black raiding"), and introduces the concepts of "grey" and "white raiding". We identify "centrally led corporate raiding" as a form of state predation not considered in public choice models, despite the fact that it exemplifies the functioning of contemporary authoritarian regimes. Expanding the models of Leeson (J Inst Theor Econ (JITE) 163:467–482, 2007) and Vahabi (Public Choice 168:153–175, 2016), we show how centrally led corporate raiding can be incorporated into the discussion of predatory states. We provide illustrations by offering two examples from the predatory state of contemporary Hungary, the case of an outdoor advertising company (ESMA) and the case of the banking sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to determine the level of health, growth and business prospects of the employees of the PT. X cooperative. The results of this study indicate that employees of general health level PT. X are in the category "moderately healthy" obtaining the average score of 68.00. Based on the result of a common size analysis of the balance sheet and operating result for the 2014-2018 period, PT. X did not experience significant growth and was really stable. Although based on the analysis of the segment report, the multipurpose loan business is the business with the most prospects for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - An analysis of the development in Polish agriculture from 1918 to 1939 and 1945 to1956. Research method - The article uses scientific historical and economical methods. Source texts of the state provenance were analysed: legal acts, printed sources (mainly statistical), archival records. In the economic studies, the analysis included statistical data, dynamics of phenomena, and comparative studies. Results - The analysis of changes in agriculture in Lower Silesia in the studied periods demonstrates that despite the under-investment and its marginal economic importance in Germany from 1918 to 1939, the agriculture in Lower Silesia was at a much higher level than the agriculture in pre-war Poland. Communism coming into power post 1945 and Poland entering the so-called Eastern Block hindered further development of capitalist agriculture in Lower Silesia. The agricultural structure created after World War II was not adapted to the character of farms taken over and the existing agricultural system was completely different from the socio-political assumptions based on agricultural reform and on the socialist character of agriculture prevailing from 1945 to 1956. Originality / value - The analysis of agricultural economy in the studied period was not sufficiently described in the source literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the efforts of capitalist economy towards the Common. Topics discussed include necessity for the valorization of capital gives rise to the business; generation of profits necessary for process of valorization; and advantage of worker cooperatives as that they allow workers to control their own work.

The article offers insights on the worker cooperative structure in agricultural communities in Idaho. Topics discussed include the types of cooperative entities in the U.S. such as agricultural/horticultural marketing cooperatives and consumer and producer cooperatives, advantages of a worker cooperative including empowerment of workers and communities, and significance of the lack of worker cooperative statute and rules preventing the implementation of worker ownership in other forms in Idaho.

Copyright of Ciencias Administrativas is the property of Universidad Nacional de La Plata and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this study we explain the concepts, determinants and imperatives of boundary in smallholder producers' cooperatives both conceptually and empirically. The conceptual framework indicates the importance of the type of goods (being a club good or not) and range of activities that a cooperative provides to its members in defining a competitive boundary. Using unique organisational and market level data from Ethiopia, we then test empirically whether the observed (weak) performance of producers' cooperatives in Africa is explained by their organisational boundary – the type and range of goods or services they provide to members. The empirical results confirm that the competitiveness of producers' cooperatives is significantly correlated with the type and number of services – i.e. cooperatives that provide club goods and a limited range of services are found to be more competitive. The results also suggest that a considerable number of cooperatives in Ethiopia engage in markets where they do not have competitive advantage. Overall, we demonstrate the importance of properly defining a viable boundary – proper selection of services (or markets) and limiting the range of services – for improving the competitiveness of membership‐based producer cooperatives in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses worker cooperatives as one of the defenses against the deterioration of working class conditions, with the widespread capitalist offensive in the U.S. Topics discussed include brief history of working class cooperative, one of the major economic development defects in the U.S., and examples of successful succession cooperatives in the country.

In recent years, there has been growing policy support for expanding worker ownership of businesses in the European Union. Debates on stimulating worker ownership are a regular feature of discussions on the collaborative economy and the future of work, given anxieties regarding the reconfiguration of the nature of work and the decline of standardised employment contracts. Yet, worker ownership, in the form of labour-managed firms such as worker cooperatives, remains marginal. This article explains the appeal of worker cooperatives and examines the reasons why they continue to be relatively scarce. Taking its cue from Henry Hansmann's hypothesis that organisational innovations can make worker ownership of firms viable in previously untenable circumstances, this article explores how organisational innovations, such as those embodied in the capital and governance structure of Decentralised (Autonomous) Organisations (D(A)Os), can potentially facilitate the growth of LMFs. It does so by undertaking a case study of a blockchain project, Colony, which seeks to create decentralised, self-organising companies where decision-making power derives from highquality work. For worker cooperatives, seeking to connect globally dispersed workers through an online workplace, Colony's proposed capital and governance structure, based on technological and game theoretic insight may offer useful lessons. Drawing from this pre-figurative structure, selfimposed institutional rules may be deployed by worker cooperatives in their by-laws to avoid some of the main pitfalls associated with labour management and thereby, potentially, vitalise the formation of the cooperative form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistently with the empirical evidence and in contrast with Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984), we demonstrate that worker‐owned firms exhibit not only more wage flexibility and less employment volatility than investor‐owned firms, but also lower expected wages than the latter. This is due to the informational advantage enjoyed by the firm's owners relatively to the workers concerning some circumstances that affect the performance of the firm. We show this both in the case in which each investor owned firm offers labor contracts to single workers who act atomistically and in the case in which each investor owned firm negotiates labor conditions with its workers who act as a group (a 'union'). Finally, we show that differences in attitudes towards risk between investor owned firms and their workers are not necessary to explain the typical combination of state‐independent wages and cyclical layoffs that characterizes most industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary knowledge workers cooperate more and more in multiple, temporary, and often virtual teams with peers within and across organizational boundaries. The growing involvement of multiple actors inside and outside organizations has severe implications for how the employment relationship is managed. In the current article it is argued that leadership is becoming not only increasingly distributed but also diffuse. Leadership is no longer "what those in leadership positions do," but refers to a process by which one or more actors stimulate themselves and each other in order to pursue values, goals, and objectives. Whoever takes on a leadership role, needs to understand the way actors can be motivated and energized to address future needs and requirements in organizations. Building on insights from human resource management, leadership, and organizational behavior literature, how multiple actors are stimulated to take on their leadership roles in order to foster salient outcomes for multiple parties is explored in the current article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profit-sharing frequently is used to link employee performance and labor costs to the profitability of organizations. It represents a significant investment. Yet, managers' decisions regarding such human resource investments frequently do not use the same financial planning frameworks typical of other investments. This article presents a case study describing how one division at Eastman Kodak Company used a strategic investment approach to plan and evaluate a profit-sharing program and describing the role of performance measurement information in that approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Mondragón system of worker production cooperatives. The Mondragón system of industrial production cooperatives in the Basque country of Spain is a major exception to the time-honored belief that production firms organized on a cooperative basis of worker ownership are doomed to a short and precarious existence. This paper traces the evolution of the Mondragón industrial firms, in association with cooperative educational, banking, and commercial institutions, and examines the personal, cultural, organizational, and economic factors that account for the extraordinary growth and dynamism of the system since its founding in 1956. The authors also describe the lessons of the Mondragón experience they believe are applicable to the development of more successful industrial cooperatives in the U.S. and elsewhere. The first firm of the cooperative system of Mondragón was founded in 1956 by five men supported by a larger group of friends. By the end of 1976 the system had grown to 65 firms with 14,665 members.

Corruption in supply chains is an important but poorly understood phenomenon that prevents supply chains from achieving their desired sustainability performance. Drawing from the literature on sustainable supply chain management, and corruption, this paper explores the antecedents, dynamics, and consequences of corruption in the Brazilian beef supply chain. Supply chains in emerging economies face a significant risk from both “petty” and “grand” corruption, and this makes criminal activity more difficult to disrupt. This research makes four contributions to theory, policy, and practice: (1) it fills an important gap in the literature by explicitly connecting the sustainable supply chain management perspective to the corruption discourse; (2) it advances the sustainable supply chain management literature by suggesting that stakeholder collaboration might not be always a “good thing” because in some cases it may increase the risk of corruption; (3) it suggests that corruption might be embedded in certain types of supply chain relationships which form a “corruption triangle”; (4) it identifies implications for the practice of supply chain management and provides insights for policy makers and regulators/law enforcers on how to identify and disrupt supply chain corruption scams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the historical evolution of worker cooperatives in South Korea from the years of Japanese colonialism to the current era. It argues that the evolution of the worker cooperative movement from radical agitation to state-sanctioned accommodation has been structured by the nature of state response to cooperative activity. Vigorously resisted by an authoritarian state from the colonial era until the late 1990s, the Korean worker cooperative movement before the 1997 economic crisis was ideologically radical, waging a classbased struggle to overcome poverty, resist the authoritarian state, and transform Korea's economic foundations in socialist directions. Since democratization in 1987, and the Asian economic crisis in 1997, worker cooperative movements have gradually shifted their once transformational and politicized labor ontology to a deradicalized and more economically focused job-conscious ontology, partly as a result of the state-directed growth of civil society. The worker cooperative movement became less contentious as the state emerged as a collaborator of social economy initiatives. The gains won by radical worker cooperatives in opening space for pluralistic civil society in Korea in the 1980s and 1990s ultimately resulted in the depoliticization and re-incorporation of worker cooperative activists into a moderately reformed political economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]