Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management最新文献

With over 5,000 credit unions and 127 million members, U.S. credit unions are the largest network of financial cooperatives in the world. To what extent do U.S. credit unions follow cooperative principles, reflect the cooperative identity, and distinguish themselves from other financial institutions? As credit unions grow and diversify their membership, many argue that credit unions will lose their cooperative identity and become more akin to their counterparts in the for-profit banking sector. This paper presents evidence that U.S. credit unions continue to differentiate themselves from other forms of banks. In their governance structure, credit unions rely on volunteer directors and CEOs are significantly less incentivized by performance-based compensation relative to commercial bank CEOs. Moreover, 51 % of credit union CEOs are female versus only 3% of CEOs at similarly sized community banks. Credit unions also offer better interest rates, provide higher quality loans, avoid overly risky lending practices (e.g., subprime mortgages), and are more likely to open and retain branches in low-income and diverse areas.

In view of the precarity and economic dependency of gig workers, platform cooperatives come into the picture as alternatives to investor-owned platforms. We develop a taxonomy of platform cooperatives along the dimensions of ownership of the platform and employment by the cooperative. Platform cooperatives are then examined as worker-run matchmaking platforms for gigs, by analysing their challenges, highlighting the difficulties to raise capital, take collective decisions, and gain institutional support. On the basis of a feasibility analysis, we conclude that the identified challenges can most likely be successfully overcome by platform co-ops that organise taxi rides and professional jobs, while it may prove much more difficult in food delivery, homecare and micro-tasking.

Despite their importance in the global economy, co-operatives are still understudied by governance experts and misunderstood by the general public. However, their purpose, ownership and decision-making and profit-sharing structures make co-operatives very different from their corporate, investor-owned counterparts. This article draws on existing literature to describe the specificities of co-operatives and argues in favour of governance theories and practices appropriate to this organizational model. Based on a member-centred conceptualization of co-operatives – as member-owned, member-controlled and member-benefiting – we highlight seven paradoxes specific to co-operative governance and show the limits of traditional theories and practices in coping with these paradoxes. We argue in favour of implementing governance models that both reinforce the co-operative identity and increase the economic and social benefits of co-operatives.

The default of a cooperative has significant implications on cooperative members and the agricultural supply chain. Therefore, monitoring and even predicting future changes in creditworthiness is of value to cooperative managers and their lenders. However, we know little about farmer cooperatives' credit profiles and behavior because their financial statements are seldom shared. Using a Moody’s credit rating model and a unique data set, this article estimates Markov chains to evaluate changes in farmer cooperatives’ credit quality. The unconditional (one-size-fits-all) probability matrix, as is typically estimated, is shown to not be appropriate in describing credit rating transitions. Results also show cooperatives do not exhibit rating change momentum since a downgrade is not likely to be followed by another downgrade in the next period. Credit ratings of farmer cooperatives with less than $20 million in net sales follow a first-order Markov chain with stationary probabilities and the cooperatives with net sales of more than $250 million follow a zero-order Markov chain. This article adds to the limited research available on the credit rating behavior of farmer cooperatives. Cooperative managers, directors, and lenders can utilize these findings to make more informed decisions to impact future credit ratings.

This article focuses on co-operatives’ faltering position in 21st century Canadian public opinion. I argue co-operative education’s introverted bias toward ‘boardrooms and classrooms’ neglects public opinion; and that shifting international norms and historical conditions have reinforced this retreat from mass media and the public sphere. A co-operative communication gap of international significance is the result. Cultural hegemony theory and qualitative methods are used to develop the argument. Historical analysis first demonstrates that educational conventionalism dangerously discounts the contemporary cultural environment’s threat to mutualism. It is argued that the International Co-operative Alliance’s (ICA) contradictory doctrine has deepened normative confusion about co-operative education’s scope, further delaying media activism and popular education. Textual analysis illustrates this contradiction in key documents. These include the Report of the ICA Commission on Co-operative Principles (1967), the Statement on the Co-operative Identity (1995), and the Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles (2016). Finally, conjunctural analysis shows that contradictory tendencies inside and outside international mutualism reshaped an inward-turning pedagogy from 1995 to 2016. Findings thus extend our understanding of the communication gap by accounting for barriers to popular educational innovation, both conceptual and strategic.

This paper investigates whether the organizational form of a property-liability insurer influences its risk-taking. We investigate the investment and underwriting behavior of 62 German property-liability insurers in the period from 2000 to 2019. We find that stock insurers take higher risks, both in underwriting and in investments than mutual insurers. Our findings are relevant to customers, investors, and regulators, as they provide insights into the fundamental differences between stock and mutual insurers in the German property-liability.insurance market.

This study explores the role of employee membership in the training process in Polish co-operative banks. On the basis of human capital theory and social exchange theory two hypotheses were formulated regarding the direct impact of employee membership on the number of training events as well as training days. The research hypotheses were tested on the basis of employee responses from two nationwide research projects about human resources in Polish co-operative banks (N = 2,273 and N = 1,707). The analyses were conducted with several two-level ordered logit models in which the proportional odds assumption was tested. As was expected, employees who hold shares of their co-operative bank receive more training. However, in the first database this result occurs only for employees with a lower level of training intensity, while in the second database it holds for all employees.

This article, building on the 5^th principle of the Statement of the Cooperative Identity explores the practice of co-educating and learning behavior among the members of a dairy cooperative society. The study adopts a social network approach by focusing on two relational social ties: information sharing and advice-seeking. Building on a case of a 55-year-old dairy cooperative in India, the social network analysis finds information-sharing relations among members to be inclusive, with no members isolated, and information exchanged along formal and knowledge hierarchies. Likewise, information sharing is horizontal, with information smoothly exchanged even among new and already established members, as is the transfer of leadership roles from the older members of the cooperatives to the younger members. Advice-seeking networks tend to be a bit more centralized toward board members and members exerting day-to-day leadership because of their knowledge and expertise regarding the organization and its policies. Our analysis suggests inclusive information sharing among members and a well-structured and functioning advice and knowledge-sharing network that contributes to learning of the cooperative members.

This study examines the productivity of agricultural cooperatives in the United States using the biennial Malmquist productivity index (BMI) under variable returns to scale. The BMI avoids numerical infeasibilities that can occur under the variable returns to scale assumption. The BMI is decomposed into efficiency change and technical change to evaluate the productivity growth of agricultural cooperatives. Overall, agricultural cooperatives increased productivity by 34 % from 2005 to 2014 of which -2 % was technical efficiency change and 37 % was technical change. Technical change was the source of productivity growth rather than efficiency change that actually regressed. Agricultural cooperatives can achieve higher productivity by increasing managerial efficiency and investing in technology. Productivity, efficiency change, and technical change were examined based on the size of agricultural cooperatives. While these measures varied across years, they remained relatively stable across the size of agricultural cooperatives.

The initiatives on Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) have gained momentum in Asia-Pacific and are actively pursued by civil society, taken up in policy discussions, and advocated by international bodies. Cooperatives which constitute the largest base in the SSE have been working on the basis of their identity since the 1830s. Many of the emerging SSE initiatives are close to cooperatives in their governance and management. This paper presents perspectives of cooperative apexes/federations from India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines and South Korea who represent close to 140 million members on the SSE. While the overall outlook of regional cooperatives towards engagement within the SSE is positive, their involvement is limited. The strength of cooperatives lies in their history, presence across countries and sectors, and the Cooperative Identity. However, the perception about cooperatives and their chequered performance is seeing the rise of SSE organisations (SSEOs). Cooperatives as people-centred organisations with a strong foundation in their identity, have the power to steer SSE initiatives in the post-pandemic world. This paper makes the case for centering cooperatives and Cooperative Identity within the SSE but is limited to the views of nine cooperative apexes/federations from seven countries. It could also have benefited from the direct views of non-cooperative SSEOs on cooperatives. Further research can look into how cooperatives and non-cooperative SSEOs can collaborate to strengthen SSE and the opportunities and bottlenecks for people-centred businesses post COVID-19.