Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management最新文献

What makes the cooperative business model unique is the various roles members have. We interviewed executives and members of four large Australian cooperatives to determine what these roles were. Our results show differences in terminologies and a conflation of member roles relating to patronage, ownership, investment, and community membership. We introduced the “Four Hats” (4Hs) framework suggested by Mamouni Limnios et al. (2018), which describes the distinct roles of patron, investor, owner, and community member. All interviewees responded positively to these roles. By isolating these specific roles, potential strategies to activate these roles can be developed to improve participation. Executives rated in order of importance, the patron, owner, community member and investor roles. Members rated in order of importance, the owner, investor, patron and community member roles.

In 2000, the list of the Israeli Kibbutz Industry Association included 346 factories. In 2017, only 203 of those plants still appeared on the list, most of the others were sold. This paper propounds a theory that explains these facts from a kibbutz perspective. The paper rests on a meta-analysis of three case studies of kibbutz enterprises conducted between 2009 and 2015, and other sources of data. The main claim is that kibbutz factories previously operated as family businesses; but in recent decades, they have experienced a process of "de-familiarization", described in this paper, that often led to their sale. No literature relates to this dramatic recent development in kibbutz industry yet. In addition, this study sheds some light on change processes which may affect ownership in family business.

Purpose

The objective of this paper is to propose a framework on innovation management specific to cooperatives.

Theoretical framework

The Coop Innovation Framework was built, a synergistic system based on the culture of cooperation and cooperativism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper used Design Science Research in a Brazilian cooperative to develop a framework.

Findings

Some points of the framework of commercial companies were removed and others specific to cooperatives introduced.

Research, practical & social implications

• 1.

  Theoretical implications: Begins the study of innovation in cooperatives, considering cooperativism as a theoretical basis, to consider the peculiarities of cooperatives in their form and organizational objective.

• 2.

  Practical Implications: The paper aims to provide the cooperative manager with a method of managing innovation in cooperatives, freeing them from using methods of market companies.

• 3.

  Social Implications: It can contribute to the perennity of the cooperative and thus contribute to the development of the region.

Originality/value

It contributes to the development of innovation management studies specifically in cooperatives.

In addition to their core of risk financing services for individuals and organizations, insurers act as significant institutional investors. Notwithstanding, research on mutuals has thus far focused more on the insuring side of operations and investigations of the investment operations have remained limited. This article aims to outline a future research agenda for studying mutuals as institutional investors. This is achieved by conceptually discussing two themes – (1) mutual insurers’ investment behaviours (i.e., how mutuals invest) and (2) the mechanisms that shape the behaviors (i.e., why mutuals invest the way they do). The two main themes are further divided into five sub-themes that, on the one hand, include factual investment allocations and targets as well as investment strategies and disclosures. Mechanism-related sub-themes, on the other hand, contain managerial influence, customer-owner influence, and societal factors.

The relevance of co-operative values and principles has long been discussed in co-operative literature. Building on a structured literature review and expert interviews, I develop a measure of perceived co-operative member value. Using a multivariate data analysis method, I establish a structural path model that incorporates this new measure. In a sample of 390 members of German co-operative banks, perceived co-operative member value is found to be an important predictor of sustainable satisfaction, next to corporate reputation. The study’s main contributions are twofold: First, I develop an understanding of perceived co-operative member value building upon relevant literature and expert interviews. Second, I enhance the existing knowledge on co-operative principle and value’s importance by situating it in the broader context of co-operative members’ sustainable satisfaction, thereby combining it with marketing literature. In conclusion, I indicate how these contributions have implications for both co-operative theory and practice.

The kernel of co-operative identity is the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of social and economic integration in co-operatives. This paper discusses the limitations of economic and sociological theoretical frameworks in capturing the integrative and relational nature of co-operative identity. The author outlines how relational theory with its focus on emergence and its ability for integration may be a better fit with co-operative practice and hence the articulation of co-operative identity and theory.

This work focuses on a modern typology through which mutual solidarity in the insurance sector finds application: peer-to-peer insurance. This cooperative insurance model arises from the translation of the sharing economy concept into insurance risk management, and it is realized thanks to the use of digital technology connecting policyholders and sharing risks. The participants to a peer-to-peer insurance scheme share the first layer of their cumulative losses, while it is possible to transfer to a third part the higher layer. To enter the mutual group, each participant has to pay an initial contribution based on a risk-sharing rule that has to be intuitive and transparent. According to the most considered conditional mean risk-sharing rule, the participant has to contribute with an amount equal to the expected value of the risk he brings to the pool given the total loss distribution. We propose to modify the conditional mean risk-sharing rule with an ex-ante contribution that takes into account a safety loading to hedge the possible fluctuations of total losses.

Multiple roles and objectives are naturally inherent in the co-op idea, captured by the Statement on the Co-operative Identity (ICA, 1995) and thus in co-operative enterprises’ practices. This complex nature derived from the co-operative mission has been conceptualized as the dual nature, which is in the DNA of all co-operatives. However, the concept is somewhat ambiguous and a comprehensive theoretical framework is missing. Prior research has approached duality at different, and not clearly delineated levels, either as individual member motivations, organizational characteristics, or community impact, discussed in this paper. Further, we examine duality and paradox framings in co-operative enterprise research to underscore complementary features that define co-operative enterprise, and contribute an elaboration on the associative practices at the heart of these debates. Associationalism is described in this paper as the common action and responsibilities of membership regarding collective contributions, ownership, benefit, decisionmaking and control. Further, we extend the argument that co-operatives have the strongest impact when they acknowledge and take advantage of their unique organizational values and characteristics, informed by their associative foundations.

This article explores the management conditions that seem responsible for the survival of the last large Australian dairy products manufacturing cooperative. A theoretical framework is presented as a mechanism to understand cooperative sustainability in a competitive sense considering the relationship of two organizational paradigms. The qualitative methods applied in this paper focus on the perceptions of the cooperative’s board of directors about dynamic capability and institutional legitimacy and the decisions they made as a consequence. The data were based on interviews and document analysis. First, the results suggest that it is possible to reduce opposing institutional pressures through efficient management processes. Second, product differentiation as a marketing policy, business diversification, and a commercially oriented strategy have been the backbone of establishing legitimacy at the organizational level, generating conditions for survival of the cooperative.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative importance of customer engagement (CE) on customer loyalty (CL) and word of mouth (WOM) within co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs), and to see how these relationships compared to those found in more mainstream investor-owned businesses (IOFs). A large sample (n = 856) of CME members and IOF customers was drawn from an online consumer panel, with broadly equal numbers in each, who completed a questionnaire examining their CE, CL, and propensity for WOM. A path model, estimated by PLS, was used to examine the relationships between four dimensions of CE (engagement attention, co-development, enthusiasm, and interaction). Although the study did not find significant differences between CME members and IOF customers in terms of the influence CE had on CL and WOM, it did find CME members had higher CE scores across all dimensions. With engagement enthusiasm (EE) as the most influential factor, followed by engagement attention (EA). The study provides empirical evidence of the influence CE has on both CL and WOM, as well as the propensity of CME members to have higher levels of CE. This offers robust support to the importance of mutuality within CME businesses. The study provides further evidence of the importance of CE in fostering CL and WOM, as well as the relative importance of EE enthusiasm and EA in this. For managers of CMEs the study shows the strength of mutuality in fostering member CE. For IOF managers, it suggests that CE does matter, and it should be monitored.