Research Reports
See all the research reports (95)
Youth, activism and the social economy in Tuscany: trends, challenges and contrasts
This report explores the socio-economic context of the provinces of Siena and Arezzo to align the development of the local social economy with European policies, through data analysis and field research, with the aim of supporting innovative social entrepreneurship.
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Italian agricultural cooperatives: characteristics and relevance in the agrifood sector
The report, a collaboration between CREA - Policy and Bioeconomy and Euricse, takes an in-depth look at the situation of agricultural cooperatives in Italy, highlighting their potential, challenges and fundamental role in supporting the rural economy and the agrifood system.
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Benchmarking the socio-economic performance of the EU social economy
This European Commission study, coordinated by Euricse in cooperation with Ciriec International and Spatial Foresight, aims to understand the weight of the social economy in the European context and its contribution to the creation of a sustainable, innovative and resilient environment.
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Community hubs: multifunctional spaces between urban regeneration and social regeneration
The report analyses Community hubs, multifunctional and multi-purpose spaces that accommodate different activities and social actors. These initiatives respond to community needs by developing community services and encouraging active participation and co-creation of new projects.
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Community enterprises in Italy. Distinctive traits and development pathways
This report focuses on the study of Community Enterprises in Italy, with particular attention to their development over the past two years, analyzing their territorial and organizational characteristics.
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WP 133 | 24 On the concept and relevance of the social economy
The paper explores the growing recognition of the centrality of the social economy, highlighting the need to analyze its specificities, including legal forms, regulation, governance and supportive policies, in order to address crucial challenges such as social cohesion, ecological transition and the creation of decent jobs, while also emphasizing its potential contribution to civic participation.
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WP 132 | 23 The vitality of people and places
The article focuses on the notion of "vitality," understood as the ability of actors or groups to express creativity in accordance with self-actualization and positive values. It introduces an original typology and identifies supporting factors, illustrating the concept with examples from the music education system in Trentino.
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WP 131 | 23 The role of shared administration in overcoming territorial polarisation processes
The paper addresses the challenges and opportunities of post-crisis socio-economic transformation: toward a pluralistic vision and empowerment of community enterprises.
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WP 130 | 23 The contribution of relational goods to the achievement of a sustainable common future. A comparative analysis of the social and solidarity economy and cryptocurrency trusts.
This paper addresses the theme of the production and destruction of public value by comparing the actions of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) with the recent development of cryptocurrency trusts.
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WP 129 | 23 The state of cooperative banking research in Europe and its future directions
After showing remarkable resilience to the negative effects of the 2007-2009 global financial crisis, cooperative banks have undergone a process of structural reform and consolidation almost everywhere in Europe over the past decade. Recognizing these changes, the paper provides an account of the main concepts and trends in research that has focused on cooperative banks since 2010.
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WP 128 | 23 Social and health integration as the axis of a new model of care. The possible role of the Third Sector
The paper explores the role of the Third Sector in social and health integration and highlights virtuous experiences in several Italian regions where these entities have played a driving role.
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WP 127 | 23 Practices and history of “Co- programming” and “Co-design” in Italy: the production of culture and music education in Trentino between public and private non-profits
The paper explores the coordination mechanism for cultural production, focusing on Trentino's innovative approach of shared administration and cultural policy.
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WP 126 | 23 ”Shared administration” as a new relationship between the public sector and the social economy
The aim of the paper is to address the possible implications of the principle of “shared administration” for the emergence of new forms of empowerment of social actors able to promote distributed models of self-determination and democratic exercise of power as an alternative to top- down bureaucracy.
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WP 125 | 23 Social economy in Italy: dimensions, dynamics and characteristics
This paper – which largely summarizes the Euricse-Istat report on the Italian social economy (2021) – aims to provide a unitary picture of the dimensions and characteristics of the entire social economy in Italy and to explore its sectoral specialization and evolutionary dynamics, showing, finally, some insights into the relationship between the presence of SEOs and variables of social interest, especially with particular reference to welfare services.
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WP 124 | 22 The Social Economy in Trentino: an overview of the characteristics and dimensions
This paper aims to explore the salient features of the social economy in Trentino through data from Istat's Permanent Census of Nonprofit Institutions.
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WP 123 | 22 The meaning of band making – Bands within the Trentino community
The working paper presents findings from research on cultural volunteering and specifically analyzes the nature of bands and their role within the Trentino community.
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WP 122 | 22 The integration of sustainability in banking: from “greedy” to “green” finance
This paper is part of the literature that recognizes the crucial role of ethical evaluation in the financial sector and investigates the social and environmental impact aspects of economic activities.
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121 | 22 Financial services for poor farmers in Thailand: the case of the bank for agriculture and agricultural cooperatives (BAAC)
Lack of credit for farming is one of the main obstacles that poor Thai farmers face. Most agricultural credits from commercial banks are given to large agricultural businesses thus leaving out poor farmers who consequently have to borrow from informal sources with high interest rates.
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WP 120 I 22 Enterprises recovered by workers: cooperative practices and strategies
This paper brings together the first results of research aimed at studying the start-up and enterprise processes of worker-recovered enterprises in Italy. The results, obtained through the administration of an online questionnaire, delve into the governance, resources and strategies used by workers in recovering/starting their own cooperative enterprise in Italy.
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WP 119 | 22 Proximity and health: an introductory framework
Starting from a reconstruction of the main limits of the current local welfare systems, the paper examines in depth the elements underlying a different model of territorial healthcare, based on the integration between social and healthcare fields and on the participation of territorial communities in the definition of policies and services.
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WP 118 | 21 The employment performance of the Mondragon worker cooperatives 1983-2019
The Mondragon Corporation is an umbrella organisation for nearly 100 separate self-governing worker cooperatives that together employ over 81,000 workers (2019). Being mainly located in the Spanish Basque region, the group’s cooperatives operate throughout the world, with 141 production plants in 37 countries, commercial businesses in 53, and sales in…
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WP 117 | 21 The capital structure of co-operative firms: an international comparative study
Anecdotal evidence describes how co-operatives are facing a financial crunch, particularly since the economic crash of 2008. This paper aims to analyse the composition of the capital of co-operatives.
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WP 116 | 20 The “Care is Home” experience: a partnership between public, private and citizenship for innovation in home care support
The paper addresses the issue of home care support for the frail elderly whose needs are not adequately addressed in formal provision and often not even within the family.
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WP 115 | 20 Linking of credit cooperatives with local societies: the Indian experience
The creation of cooperative forms of organisations and a proper structuring of them is required for achieving this objective of reaching out to the local community. This paper is an attempt to analyse the structure and functioning of credit cooperatives in India and to assess to what extent the same is conducive for connecting the local societies.
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WP 114 | 20 Community archaeology: the case of Scherìa cooperative community in Tiriolo (CZ) as a new reference model
The paper analyzes how cultural heritage and, more specifically, historical-archaeological heritage can be a powerful driver of local development.
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WP 113 | 20 The performance of cooperatives and corporations from 2008 to 2015 in the provinces of Trento and Bolzano
The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of different forms of enterprise in the Trentino economic system, and then to provide a comparative assessment, first with the neighboring province of Bolzano and, later, with the entire Italian economy.
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WP 112 | 20 The economic significance of the Third Sector: the situation and impact of reform
In the essay, after identifying the reasons explaining the growth of the third sector, its economic dimension is reconstructed and whether and to what extent the reform has captured its specificities and succeeded in laying the groundwork for its further strengthening is analyzed.
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WP 111 | 20 Homo Oeconomicus at the cafè: a field experiment on “suspended coffee”
This paper supports the thesis of inadequacy of the homo oeconomicus model, providing results of a field experiment conducted in the city of Naples (Italy) on the practice of “suspended coffee” (caffè sospeso).
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WP 110 | 20 Finance, property rights and productivity in Italian cooperatives
This paper addresses the real effects of collective capital on productivity using a large panel of Italian worker and social cooperatives.
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WP 109 | 19 The institutions of livelihood and social enterprise system
This paper considers resource coordination in production systems featuring the presence of enterprises and organizations pursuing social, health-related, educational, cultural, and environmental aims, or social enterprises (SEs).
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WP 108 | 19 Cooperation as a tool for the emancipation of the working classes in the thought of 19th century English economists
This paper seeks to synthesize the thought of three great economists, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and Alfred Marshall, and then put forward a hypothesis as to why the interest in cooperation suffered such a rapid decline, and why even today it still struggles to present itself in its original form, that is, as a means of emancipation for the working classes, a relevant issue in the society of inequality.
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WP 107 | 19 Conflict between communities, citizen ownership and the production of public goods
The paper investigates the conditions under which consumer ownership should be preferred to investor ownership in economies with externalities.
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WP 106 | 19 The potential of the Trust as the institutional vehicle of choice for empowering the Third Sector in the recovery and enhancement of cultural heritage
This research aims to fill the gap in the literature between the public governance perspective applied to cultural heritage management and the current recorded macro-trends.
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WP 105 | 18 Urban regeneration and social innovation: The case of Gillet Square, a community-driven urban culture project
This article focuses its attention on the inner cities and asks questions on their possible redevelopment. In particular, the question concerns the social innovation of these projects.
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WP 104 | 18 Advancing statistics on cooperatives: Reflections on six country case studies
This paper summarizes the main results of the project “Terms of References for National Practices in Developing Statistics on Cooperatives” that is part of the series of initiatives undertaken by the ILO to better understand how data on cooperatives are collected and realised across the world.
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WP 103 | 18 Cooperatives and Taxation: How many Benefits do they really have? The Italian Case
The present contribution, through a precise analysis of the financial statements of cooperatives and shareholder corporations, will try to empirically verify these assumptions. In particular, it will take into account not only the taxes paid on corporate income, but also the taxation on employee income.
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WP 102 | 18 Agricultural cooperation and marginal areas: A reflection on the experience of the Province of Trento
This article, based on the experience of agricultural co-ops in the Province of Trento (Italy), will try to highlight the importance of this organizational model in favoring an adequate development of disadvantageous territories, such as mountain areas.
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WP 101 | 18 Public assets concession contracts between local authorities and third sector organisations
The paper analyses the issue of concessions of public property by local authorities to third sector organisations, taking into account sources of positive law and jurisprudence at national and European level.
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WP 100 | 18 Non-profits and the Profit Non-distribution Constraint with Selfish Entrepreneurial Motivations
In this paper we investigate the social value of the NDC in mutual non-profits where customers exert control over the firm. The main theme here is the exploitation of some customers by others, rather than the exploitation of donors by managers or owners.
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WP 99 | 17 Democratic Governance Mechanisms in Cooperative Banks: A Reassessment
This paper considers the fact that it is not always clear whether cooperative banks’ members have the proper incentives to actively participate in making decisions that relate to bank strategies and policies.
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WP 98 | 17 The Foundations of the “Public” Organisation: Strategic Control and the Problem of the Costs of Exclusion
This paper suggests a different model of governance, which is inclusive of multiple affected patrons, and which is growing especially in welfare service provision.
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WP 97 |17 Strategies for Repositioning the Social and Solidarity Economy in the Consumption Patterns of the “Great Contraction”
This paper aims to reformulate the "critical" status of consumption by looking for its traces within models that have become mainstream from alternative. In particular, we intend to analyze the effects generated by new value chains with respect to a more conscious and proactive user/consumer.
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WP 96 | 17 Social Enterprise in Italy: Typology, Diffusion and Characteristics
This paper is part of a series of Working Papers produced as part of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) project. It intends to answer the following research questions: "How many different types of SEs exist in Italy?"; "How many SEs of each type exist?"; "How and to what extent do they differ from each other?"
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WP 95 | 17 The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives
This paper has two aims, to set out some of the theoretical arguments for and against multi-stakeholder governance, to look at examples of multi-stakeholder models in practice, and to generate from this a set of research questions.
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WP 94 | 17 A Knowledge-based Vision of the Agricultural Cooperative: The St. Ursula Case
In Italy, Sant'Orsola is the leading company in the small fruit trade, with a market share of around 45 percent. This case study highlights the potential that the agricultural cooperative can have in developing and fostering a social organization of production and dissemination of knowledge and innovation in agriculture.
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WP 93 | 17 Selected Aspects of Social Cooperatives in Poland
The paper describes the characteristics of social cooperatives in Poland, which constitute an important element of the national sector of social entrepreneurship.
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WP 92 | 17 The Institutions of Governance. A Framework for Analysis
This paper suggests a framework to assess coordination structures and mechanisms in terms of their ability to include the publics and their interests, and to generate socio-economic value consistently with those interests.
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WP 91 | 17 The Modern Agricultural Cooperative: A Cognitive-Knowledge- Based Approach
This work is aimed at updating the function/justification of modern agricultural cooperatives. Firstly, a theoretical contribution mingling the knowledge-based theory of the firm with the social innovation approach in agriculture will be defined. Secondly, two case studies will be discussed.
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WP 90 | 17 The Firm as a Common. The Case of the Accumulation and Use of Capital Resources in Co-operative Enterprises
This paper aims to outline a neo-institutionalist framework for analyzing the accumulation and governance of common capital resources within organizational boundaries.
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WP 89 | 16 Governance for a “socialised economy”. A case study in preventive health and work integration
This paper offers a conceptual reflection on how the production of complex health-related services, such as the prevention aspects of psychiatric illness, can be governed for the benefit of users and society at large.
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WP 88 | 16 Social Enterprise: Social Co-operation in the Italian Welfare System and its Reproduction in Europe
This paper aims to investigate one of the first, if not the first, social enterprises in Europe, the Italian social cooperative. It begins with an analysis of the economic and social context of the 1970s that gave rise to this form of cooperative. This is followed by a statistical analysis, starting with the first survey conducted to monitor the phenomenon and concluding with the most recent statistical data.
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WP 87 | 16 How communities can regenerate urban contexts: The case study of Hackney Co-operative Development
This paper analyzes the UK context and the evolution of community enterprise legislation. The case study of Hackney Co-operative Developments is presented to show how a community enterprise, established to respond to local problems, can structure its business and be a generator of social innovation.
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WP 86 | 16 Governance and Member Participation in Labor Cooperatives
The article aims to explore some specific aspects of governance of worker cooperatives, with particular reference to the participation of the worker member in the management of the enterprise.
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WP 85 | 16 The Role of Nonprofit Institutions in Provinces with Greater Employment Fragility
This paper, through data from the Census of Industry and Services and key employment statistics, will attempt to identify the territorial and/or sectoral areas most exposed to the fragilities that the crisis has highlighted, in order to analyze, precisely in these areas, the role and innovati va capacity of the nonprofit sector.
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WP 84 | 16 Marco Legal y Desarrollo del Cooperativismo de Crédito en Argentina, 1887-2015
En este trabajo se describe la evolución de las cooperativas de crédito en Argentina desde finales de 1880 hasta la actualidad. El análisis presta particular atención a la influencia de factores políticos e institucionales. En términos más específicos, muestra cómo reiterados cambios en el marco legal y regulatorio, inducidos por la profunda inestabilidad del contexto político argentino, han afectado sustancialmente la dimensión y la estructura del sistema de cooperativas de crédito.
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WP 83 | 15 The Spirit of the Law over its Letter: The Role of Culture and Social Norms in Shielding Cooperative Banks from Systemic Shocks
The macroeconomic impact of bank misconduct has deterred users of financial services from using the system, to the detriment of market integrity, and has prompted policymakers and supervisors to turn to "culture" as a tool to regain public trust. This paper addresses the definitional deficit on what "culture" is by exploring the illustrative case of cooperative banks.
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WP 82 | 15 Recognition and Legal Forms of Social Enterprise in Europe: A Critical Analysis from a Comparative Law Perspective
This article will describe the current state of social enterprise legislation in Europe, investigating its key role in the development of the social economy and its particular logics, distinct from those of the for-profit capitalist economy.
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WP 81 | 15 The relevance and economic sustainability of the social economy in Italy
This study explores the dimensions of the social economy in Italy in terms of organizations, employment and revenues, taking into account the market/non-market orientation of organizations.
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WP 80 | 15 Social and political embeddedness of Argentina’s worker- recuperated enterprises: a brief history and current trends
This article aims to provide a political, economic and social overview of the emergence and establishment of ERTs in Argentina over the past two decades. In addition, the legal and institutional preconditions that significantly encourage, limit and determine the scope of worker cooperatives will be analyzed.
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WP 79 | 15 The Operational Effectiveness of Italian Foundations of Banking Origin: An Empirical Analysis.
Starting with the mission of foundations of banking origin (FOBs), the result of the privatizations of Italy's public banks that began in 1990, this paper assesses the quality of the work of these entities, applying a model of analysis that considers their philanthropic activities, investment activities of resources derived from the total or partial divestment of holdings in former public banks (transferee banks), governance and transparency.
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WP 78 | 15 The Italian Road to Creating Worker Cooperatives from Worker Buyouts: Italy’s Worker-Recuperated Enterprises and the Legge Marcora Framework
This paper highlights the first phase of a research program, completed in late 2014 and early 2015, that homes in on worker-recuperated enterprises (imprese recuperate dai lavoratori) in Italy. The paper specifically focuses on Italy’s worker buyouts (WBOs) facilitated by its Legge Marcora (Marcora Law) framework—the form of worker-recuperated enterprises predominating in Italy.
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WP 77 | 15 Community and cooperation: the evolution of cooperatives toward new models of democratic citizen participation in the management of public services
In this work we discuss the core elements of the community cooperatives concept (community goods, land and citizenship) with references to concrete cases. We then examine how new community cooperatives differ from historical ones. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of their future prospects.
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WP 76 | 15 Was the Crisis Due to a Shift from Stakeholder to Shareholder Finance? Surveying the Debate
This paper proposes an analysis the literature on the shift from stakeholder to shareholder finance behind the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Traditional banks generally maximized stakeholder value (STV). But before the GFC also many of them started maximizing shareholder value (SHV).
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WP 75 | 15 Why Social Enterprises are asking to be multi-stakeholder and deliberative: an explanation around the costs of exclusion
This contribution aims to enrich the scarce theoretical reflections on multi-stakeholdership in a context where they are already well established, namely that of social and personal services.
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WP 74 | 14 Social Enterprise in Ireland: The Camara Education Experience
This paper analyzes the situation of social enterprises in Ireland. The first part provides an updated representation of the Irish social enterprise sector, while the second part presents Camara Education as a specific case of a successful Irish social enterprise.
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WP 73 |14 De la Economía Popular a la Economía Social y Solidaria: el Caso de los Recicladores de Base en Santiago de Chile
El objetivo del estudio fue comprender la dinámica organizativa y el potencial de las organizaciones de base de recolección de residuos en el área metropolitana de Santiago de Chile para pasar de una situación de informalidad, asociada a la idea de economía popular, a la capacidad de incorporarse como organizaciones más estructuradas en el contexto de la economía social y solidaria.
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WP 72 | 14 Groups and Trust: Experimental Evidence on the Olson and Putnam Hypotheses
Mancur Olson and Robert Putnam provide two contrasting views on the effect of involvement in voluntary associations on their members. This paper aims to examine the different models by involving a sample of members of different types of associations, from different age groups and educational levels, and a demographically comparable sample of non-members.
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WP 71 | 14 The International Year of Cooperatives and the 2020 Vision
The cooperative movement underwent in 2012 a renewed impulse with the declaration of the “International Year of Cooperatives”. In this paper we present the results of the interviews conducted with international experts of the sector, who belong to national organizations following the Delphi methodology.
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WP 70 | 14 Pricing and Price Regulation in a Customer-Owned Monopoly
In the first part of the paper we study the pricing policies of a customer-owned firm in the absence of external regulation. The main result is that the effect of self-regulation generally ensures the dominance of customer ownership over investor ownership in terms of welfare, although in neither rule is sufficient to achieve first-best in equilibrium.
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WP 69 | 14 Europe in Transition: The Role of Social Cooperatives and Social Enterprises
This paper describes the role of social enterprises and social cooperatives as a type of nonprofit economic organization that is assuming an increasingly central role in Europe (as demonstrated, for example, by the Social Business Initiative recently launched by the European Commission), contributing to its economic and social growth.
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WP 68 | 14 Community Enterprises in Urban Regeneration Policies: Defining and Framing the Italian Context.
In the European and Italian landscape, community enterprises are emerging, under different institutional forms, as key players in urban regeneration processes. The paper proposes an analysis of the Italian context proceeding from institutionalized organizations to less formal ones: community cooperatives, social enterprises and urban commons linked to social movements.
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WP 67 | 14 Costumer Ownership and Quality Provision in Public Services under Asymmetric Information
The implementation of projects producing external effects is often a source of disagreement and conflict between hosting and non-hosting communities. The paper focuses on the impact of participatory ownership on conflict resolution and social welfare in the presence of asymmetric information and imperfect quality monitoring.
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WP 66 | 14 A “human growth” perspective on organizational resources, worker satisfaction and firm performance
The paper deals with the mediating role of immaterial satisfaction between substantive organizational substantive features, defined as resources by on-the-job autonomy, involvement, teamwork and workload pressure, and organizational performance, defined in terms of improvements in product quality and innovation.
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WP 65 | 14 Cost efficiency and outreach of microfinance institutions in Ethiopia: Do they contrast with financial cooperatives?
Using a stochastic frontier approach, in this paper we analyze the imposition of financial sustainability requirements on the traditional social mission of microfinance--reaching out to the poor. In addition, we ask whether the way ownership is organized and practiced affects the costs of microfinance delivery.
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WP 64 | 14 Wine cooperatives between tradition and efficiency: A reflection on the Italian case
Using a variety of sources, this paper reconstructs the size and proposes an analysis of the economic function of Italian agricultural cooperation, including through a comparison with corporations and with a specific focus on the wine sector.
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WP 63 | 14 Community and cooperation: the evolution of cooperatives towards new models of citizens’ democratic participation in public services provision
To address the lack of clarity around the concept of community cooperatives this paper aims to develop a definition consistent with its evolution and the classification of cooperatives we have identified.
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WP 62 | 13 The Internal and External Governance of Cooperatives: Membership and Consistency of Values
Building on evidence from the literature, the paper systematises and highlights some of the potential problems in the governance of cooperative firms concerning the accomplishment of cooperative mutualistic aims. In exploring the internal conditions that may affect cooperative performance, we focus in particular on the role of rules and incentives towards such aims.
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WP 61 | 13 Social entrepreneurship in Croatia: a framework for development
Social entrepreneurship in Croatia is a rather new phenomenon and is still poorly developed. The paper continues on from the findings of the author’s PhD research and its intention is to provide an understanding of the socio-economic, political and cultural context in which social entrepreneurship emerges, as well as an overview of the current stage of its development in Croatia.
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WP 60 | 13 The degree of awareness of the Small Business Act and industrial policy measures and the recent economic performance of Italian cooperative enterprises: key findings from a qualitative survey
This work, based on a qualitative survey regarding a representative sample of 1,000 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, sought to identify the degree of entrepreneurs' knowledge about the Small Business Act (SBA) and recent industrial policy measures, as well as to analyze their most recent economic performance and the main competitiveness factors, both internal and external.
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WP 59 | 13 Exploring the performance of social cooperatives during the economic crisis: the italian case
By developing a multiple factor analysis (MFA), this paper aims at deepening the understanding of the economic performance and the employment features of social cooperatives in 2008 (before the crisis) and 2011 (after the beginning of the crisis) in order to better understand how the employment and economic performances of such organisations have changed during the years of the economic crisis.
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WP 58 | 13 MAPISER, the development of a social holding company. Seeking (and finding) social business opportunities
This paper presents the experience of the Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE) named Manipulados y Servicios Picarral SL. (MAPISER). This social enterprise is focused on employment and social integration for people with physical, sensory, intellectual, and mental illnesses.
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WP 57 | 13 Restructured agricultural cooperative marketing system in Uganda
The study focused on describing and analysing the integrated approach to agricultural cooperative marketing in Uganda: the tripartite cooperative model. It was found that structural changes and successful growth have been achieved within the agricultural cooperative marketing system.
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WP 56 | 13 Financial sustainability and outreach of microfinance institutions in Ethiopia: does organizational form matter?
Using disaggregated data on microfinance lenders in Ethiopia, this paper compares financial cooperatives and specialized or unbanked microfinance institutions based on their scale, financial performance, and ability to achieve financial self-sufficiency and target the poor.
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WP 55 | 13 The emergence of the empresas recuperadas por sus trabajadores
The objective of this working paper is to provide a political-economic and sociological overview of the emergence and establishment of ERTs in Argentina over the past two decades.
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WP 54 | 13 Disentangling the relationship between nonprofit and social capital
In this paper we use a unique dataset to study how participation in two specific types of nonprofit organizations, namely social welfare associations and social cooperatives, affects individual social capital. Descriptive analysis shows that both types of organizations have a positive impact.
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WP 53 | 13 Worldwide regulation of co-operative societies – an Overview
The main part of this paper is concerned with describing the legal models of cooperative societies from different perspectives: (a) by origin, (b) by type of cooperative, and (c) by continent. Conclusions are drawn on international guidelines for good cooperative law around a common core-the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Declaration of Cooperative Identity.
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WP 52 | 13 Collective institutions towards habitability: roles, strategies and forms of governance
The goal of this paper is to apply the theory of commons to residential contexts and verify if and how collective institutions can be used to produce habitability, i.e. a set of particular socio-environmental conditions conducive to inhabiting a particular area. While most literature on the study of the commons has a specific focus on the management of natural resources, this paper argues that collective institutions can work also in urban contexts.
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WP 51 | 13 The performance of service cooperatives during the crisis: an analysis during 2009-2011
This research, conducted using the traditional method of financial statement indices, concerns the economic and financial performance achieved in the years 2009-2011 by 30 worker cooperatives in the service sector. The cooperatives investigated are medium-sized (turnover 30-50 million euros) and large (turnover over 50 million euros). The results obtained support the thesis that cooperatives exhibit strong resilience in the face of the economic crisis.
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WP 50 | 13 Impact of agricultural cooperatives on smallholders’ technical efficiency: evidence from Ethiopia
Using household survey data from Ethiopia, this paper evaluates the impact of agricultural cooperatives on smallholders’ technical efficiency. We utilize propensity score matching to compare the average difference in technical efficiency between cooperative farmers and similar independent farmers. The approach assumes exogenous cooperative formation and similar farm technology across households.
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WP 49 | 13 Cooperative economy: an innovative approach to sustainability
The text deals with two opposing economic visions: the financial one in which only the growth of capital matters, and the cooperative one in which finding a balance between multiple dimensions, including social and environmental ones, matters.
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WP 48 | 13 Mutualism and peer monitoring in Italian BCCs
This paper seeks, first, to measure the intensity of member relationships that connotes BCCs, highlighting their differences at the territorial and size levels and identifying their main determinants. Second, it aims to assess the role of peer monitoring on credit quality by empirically testing the effect of the degree of mutualism on the main indicators of riskiness.
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WP 47 | 13 Pan-European cooperative law: Where do we stand?
This paper aims to provide a brief general overview of the present state of European Union (EU) cooperative law from the perspective of harmonization of cooperative law in Europe. It also presents the author’s point of view on the possible future of both EU cooperative law and the harmonization of European national cooperative laws.
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WP 46 | 13 Cooperative’s concern for the community: from members towards local communities’ interest
This article discusses the relationship between cooperatives and their communities, one of the standard ways in which the "cooperative difference" is explained. What are the origins of this special relationship? Why and how did it receive so much attention in the 1990s, when the international cooperative movement undertook a major and sustained effort to articulate its core values and principles?
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WP 45 | 12 Cooperative finance and cooperative identity
The question addressed in this paper is whether the financial structure of cooperatives constitutes a badge of identity that differentiates cooperatives from other corporate legal forms such as capital-based companies.
To this end, it examines features of their financial structure that are considered typical of cooperatives in a number of documents published by international organizations.
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WP 44 | 12 Cooperative enterprises and network contracts: Key findings from a qualitative survey
The paper aims to take an in-depth look at the "Network Contract," an innovative form of business aggregation recently introduced by the legislature, through the results of a qualitative survey conducted on a sample of about 300 companies involved in 159 network contracts.
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WP 43 | 12 Do cooperative enterprises create social trust?
This paper contributes to the literature by carrying out the first empirical investigation into the role of different types of enterprises in the creation of social trust. Drawing on a unique dataset collected through the administration of a questionnaire to a representative sample of the population of the Italian Province of Trento in March 2011, we find that cooperatives are the only type of enterprise where the work environment fosters the social trust of workers.
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WP 42 | 12 Social enterprise projects as urban regeneration strategies: spaces and methods for social innovation
Among the various expressions of social innovation, the regeneration of community assets by social purpose enterprises is assuming increasing prominence.The paper aims to explore this topic in depth, analyzing the main critical junctures of regeneration processes and highlighting the convergence at the scholarly level between the definitions of social enterprise and public policy.
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WP 41 | 12 Co-operation as a remedy in times of crisis: agricultural co-operatives in the world
Changing framework conditions and the changing environment bring challenges that more affluent people can face more easily than poorer ones. At these stages, cooperation with others facing similar problems may prove to be a remedy. However, pooling resources presupposes that individuals who decide to cooperate have at least small potentials and means that they can pool to build a common force.
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WP 40 | 12 Governance in cooperative enterprises. The case of the member cooperatives of Legacoopservizi
In 2008, Legacoopservizi member cooperatives approved a governance code.
This study measures the degree to which the code has been disseminated 2 years after its approval in 49 service cooperatives with a turnover of more than 25 million euros. The study focuses on the rules for admitting new members and how the board of directors is elected and composed.
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WP 39 | 12 Mondragón: how to combine economic success and cooperative values
This paper shows how the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC) group has managed to reconcile cooperative goals, the relationship with the local community and the necessary requirements of efficiency and competitiveness by adopting a peculiar organizational structure, in which cooperatives are grouped into sectoral divisions and coordinated by central bodies composed of the members themselves.
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WP 38 | 12 The “made in Switzerland” social enterprise model. Results of a nationwide exploratory survey.
This article presents the main findings of an exploratory study of the social enterprise sector in Switzerland, funded by the National Science Research Fund, focusing on the purpose of job placement of vulnerable people.
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WP 37 | 12 Cooperation in times of crisis
This paper argues that pluralism of forms of enterprise is the way forward in addressing the deep crisis in the global economy, and cooperatives are a fundamental part of this pluralism.
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WP 36 | 12 What to make of social innovation? Towards a framework for policy development
This article focuses specifically on the usefulness of the concept of social innovation for policy development. Therefore, the goal is not to find the "true" definition of social innovation. Rather, it is to seek a useful framework on which to build sound policies that can address complex social issues.
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WP 35 | 12 The Italian social cooperatives in 2008: A portrait using descriptive and principal component analysis
This study analyzes the contribution of social cooperatives in Italy at the regional level, highlighting differences related to age and business sectors. It also assesses social cooperative efficiency and profitability by conducting further analysis based on a series of economic and financial ratios.
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WP 34 | 12 Innovative private-public partnerships
The crisis in global markets has severely affected the labor market, on the one hand, making it even more difficult for disadvantaged people to find new jobs and, on the other, creating new conditions of social fragility and thus new labor needs. While social cooperatives are a concrete way to respond to these emergencies, they often find themselves having to self-sustain in a highly competitive market with narrow profitability margins and restrictive spending policies.
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WP 33 | 12 Stakeholder orientation and capital structure: Social enterprises versus for-profit firms in the Italian social residential service sector
In this paper, we investigate whether capital structure differs between for-profit and nonprofit sectors by focusing on two key aspects of the latter: the non-distribution constraint and the stakeholder oriented governance system. We develop a theoretical model and show that the former negatively affects leverage, defined as the amount borrowed over the total investment, whilst the latter has a positive effect.
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WP 32 | 12 From mutual aid societies to mutual aid. Responses to the welfare crisis
Mutual aid societies appeared in Europe between the 19th and 20th centuries. This is one of the first forms of working class solidarity - anti-elitist, free from state control and self-managed - established to address the costs of illness, death and unemployment. Based on a study of the Italian situation, the paper deals with the role that mutuality can play today in response to the welfare crisis.
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WP 31 | 12 Credit cooperatives: challenges and opportunities in the new global scenario
The future scenario highlights a Western leadership challenged while the geo-economy seems to be moving back to a pre-Industrial Revolution setup. Against this possible background, we outline various considerations along which that scenario will increase the need for credit cooperatives to shape a more sustainable economy.
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WP 30 | 12 Evaluation of the economic and financial sustainability of the system of care services for non-self-sufficient elderly people: The case of the Province of Trento
This work aims to provide a first assessment of the economic and financial sustainability of the Trentino healthcare service system, with the main objective of identifying the drivers of profitability, both by examining the role and relevance of the new services that can be provided in terms of additional revenues, and by examining the characteristics of the different cost structures and the related methods of managing them.
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WP 29 | 12 Cooperatives: a development strategy? An analysis of argan oil cooperatives in Southwest Morocco
This paper assesses the model employed by argan oil cooperatives in southwest Morocco. Female-based cooperatives have been supported by donor organizations and development practitioners to promote environmental conservation of argan forests, foster social equity in the patriarchal society, and improve the local economy.
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WP 28 | 12 The Stubai cooperative: using local roots for global competitiveness
The Stubai Co-operative, founded in 1897 by several craftsmen and steel manufacturing companies located in the Tyrolean Stubai Valley, has developed in one of the most successful distributors of small steel products in the high quality segment on a global scale. The proposed case study will discuss the reasons for this remarkable success, given that the comparably small Stubai Co-operative is able to challenge big players in the iron manufacturing industry.
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WP 27 | 12 Social cooperation in Italy: an overview
This study intends to analyze the contribution of social cooperation in Italy at a regional level, highlighting differences linked to the sector of intervention and the age of establishment.
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WP 26 | 12 Cooperation in Italy in 2008
This study intends to offer a reliable analysis of the Italian cooperative system in 2008, highlighting the economic and employment dimensions and the impact of the phenomenon.
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WP 25 | 12 The flexibility of the cooperative model as a development tool: the case of an Italian region
With the crisis of laissez-faire philosophy and practices, cooperation has rediscovered its relevance and, at the same time, its diversity. The case of Trentino, an Italian region with an important history of cooperatives, can serve as a starting point to introduce a reflection on the challenges we face today.
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WP 24 | 12 New Study Group on European Cooperative Law: “Principles” project
This paper presents both a new scientific network named “Study Group on European Cooperative Law” (SGECOL), and the “Principles of European Cooperative Law” (PECOL) project, which SGECOL has identified as its first research activity.
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WP 23 | 12 Cooperative identity and the law
This paper deals with the legal identity of cooperatives. It is divided into three parts. The first part discusses the role and function of law and of comparative legal research on the topic of cooperative identity (sec. 2). The second part focuses on cooperative identity within the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Principles and the ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity at large (sec. 3).
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WP 22 | 11 La cooperaciòn en Trentino: un modelo construido a través de 120 años de transformaciones
Este documento de trabajo presenta un estudio de caso del Trentino, uno de los territorios europeos con la mayor densidad de empresas cooperativas. El sistema de cooperación desarrollado en esta zona fronteriza a lo largo de sus ciento veinte años de historia ha respondido a una serie de acontecimientos que han cambiado sustancialmente y en repetidas ocasiones el marco institucional y económico, que muestra una gran versatilidad.
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WP 21 | 11 Las empresas sociales y cooperativas dentro del nuevo paradigma: porque en Europa la realidad niega la ideología
El texto trata del renovado interés europeo, dentro del debate político-institucional, para la economía social. En particular se aborda el reconocimiento de la diversidad de formas de empresas después de más de dos décadas en las que, tanto el paradigma económico continental así como las comunes estrategias de desarrollo de la Unión Europea fueron monopolizadas prácticamente por el predominio del modelo de las grandes empresas capitalistas enmarcas dentro del duopolio Estado - mercado.
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WP 20 | 11 Le cooperative in campo educativo: dimensioni del fenomeno e ruolo della cooperazione sociale
In the first part of this paper the universe of cooperative enterprises involved, in various capacities, in the educational field will be quantified. In the second part, the main characteristics of social cooperatives will be explored in depth, looking at the type of goods and services produced, their territorial location, as well as than to structural and performance dimensions. The third and final part will be dedicated to the synthesis of the results and the illustration of some guidelines for the diffusion and strengthening of social cooperation in the educational field.
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WP 19 | 11 The development needs of social enterprise. An analysis starting from the “Women&Work” call
Euricse participated in the "Progetto Donne Lavoro" initiative launched by the magazine Donna Moderna and the Vodafone Italia Foundation. The competition notice had the aim of rewarding female social enterprise by offering an opportunity for social emancipation and promotion through work. Euricse, in addition to offering technical consultancy on the topic of social enterprise, was also one of the members of the scientific evaluation committee.
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WP 18 | 11 Measuring the economic efficiency of Italian agricultural enterprises
This paper aims to measure the technical efficiency of agricultural enterprises in Italy during the period 2003 – 2007 by applying a stochastic frontier analysis to panel data. The developed two-sectored model distinguishes between agricultural production function and non-agricultural production function.
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WP 17 | 11 What differences does a century make? Considering some crises in the international cooperative movement, 1900 and 2000
The ending of one century and the beginning of another is a ritualistic time for “taking stock”; a time for understanding what has changed and what has largely remained the same; a time to measure what has been accomplished, what has been lost. That is as true for movements as it is for institutions and countries.
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WP 16 | 11 Cooperative credit network: advantages and challenges in italian cooperative credit banks
This paper provides an outline of both the competitive advantages and challenges currently faced by Italian cooperative credit banks. This paper suggests that a better understanding of their specifics highlights their contribution to sound cooperation in economics.
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WP 15 | 11 Capital formation in new cooperatives in China: policy and practice
This paper aims to fill one knowledge gap on understanding the issue of capital formation in new co-operatives in developing countries. By doing so, it presents the main findings of capital formation and investment in a small sample of horticulture shareholding co-operatives in rural China, because shareholding co-operatives, as one best example of new multi-stakeholder co-operatives in China, have become a vehicle to mobilize additional resources.
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WP 14 | 11 The social cooperation business system. Origins and development of social cooperative consortia
The essay aims to study the organizational structure, i.e. the integration between companies developed by social cooperation in Italy over its thirty years of history. In fact, to best carry out their tasks, social cooperatives make use of the Consortium, an entrepreneurial entity that almost never operates in the final part of the supply chain, rarely places itself on the finished services market, preferring to be in the middle: to produce services for businesses .
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WP 13 | 10 New welfare policy instruments: international experiences and implications for social enterprises
In this paper recent approaches to the role of social protection systems within economic development policies are discussed. Important experiences are considered, in particular those implemented in medium and low income countries, where new tools for increasing the effectiveness of social and development policies have been tried and tested.
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WP 12 | 10 Incentives, job satisfaction and performance: empirical evidence in italian social enterprises
The paper offers a contribution to the understanding of the relations between incentives, satisfaction and performance of employees in social enterprises. It starts by criticizing the general hypotheses of the principal-agent theory and especially that employee satisfaction is determined exclusively by the level of salary received.
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WP 11 | 10 The roots of cooperative credit from a theoretical and historical perspective
One of the most relevant sectors where the cooperative offer has established itself is undoubtedly that of credit. If we consider the importance of its role, for the development of other sectors and of the territories and communities where it operates, and the economic and political power that it can consequently confer on those who manage it, some problematic aspects typical of organizations become crucial here. not-for-profit. The latter are discussed in theoretical form in the first part of the work, while in the second the first applications and the debate that accompanied them are analysed.
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WP 10 | 10 Analysis of the characteristics of the management process of the Volunteer Service Centers (CSV) from a stakeholder management perspective
Starting from the assumption that the performance of the ANPs depends on the perception that the various stakeholders have regarding the achievement of the mission, this paper analyzes the case of the Volunteer Service Centers (CSV). The paper presents the results of an action research developed with 61 Italian CSVs.
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WP 09 | 10 The economic impact of cooperation in the province of Trento
The paper proposes an estimate of the economic role of the cooperative system in the province of Trento which takes into account not only the direct contribution to the production of income, but also the production and employment activated in businesses other than cooperative ones.
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WP 08 | 10 Reconceptualising the third sector: toward a heterodox perspective
The paper explores the way the work of classic institutionalist authors can inform modern nonprofit economics. From the perspective of Thorstein Veblen, nonprofit organisation is explained as an institutional consequence of the pecuniary-industrial dichotomy.
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WP 07 | 10 Mission, strategies and performance evaluation of nonprofit companies in a stakeholder management approach
The working paper highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement processes for the definition and measurement of performance indicators: the social value produced is such, in fact, only if perceived by the stakeholders involved.
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WP 06 | 10 Defining the nonprofit sectors in Japan and England & Wales: A comparative assessment of common versus civil law
This paper provides a comparative assessment of the legal frameworks for non-profit organisations (NPOs) in England and Japan, offering fresh insights into the differences in legislative support for NPO development in both countries.
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WP 05 | 10 Working in the profit versus not for profit sector: what difference does it make? An inquiry on preferences of voluntary and involuntary movers
We investigate what is behind the profit/not for profit wage differential by comparing judgments on job characteristics of workers who voluntarily or involuntarily moved from the first to the second sector. Our findings support the differential profit/nonprofit compensation hypothesis and shed light on mechanisms that go beyond the work-donating behavior of intrinsically motivated workers.
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WP 04 | 10 Employment protection in worker cooperatives: tools and motivations. Analysis of a group of cooperatives in Ravenna
Italian worker cooperatives tend to accumulate a high share of profits in indivisible reserves, a fund that is unavailable and cannot be appropriated by members. The research investigates the reasons for this practice, after discussing the most frequently used interpretations. The hypothesis that is formulated is that indivisible reserves play an important role in protecting the stability of employment in cooperatives.
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WP 03 | 10 The Growth of Organizational Variety in Market Economies: The Case of Social Enterprises
The paper examines the main limitations of the orthodox and institutional theories and comes to assert the need for creating and testing a new theoretical framework, which considers the way in which diverse enterprises pursue their goals, the diverse motivations driving actors and organizations, and the different learning patterns and routines within organizations.
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WP 02 | 09 Italian Co-operative Law Reform and Co-operative Principles
This paper presents the principal characteristics of the new Italian co-operative law and seeks to evaluate the relationship of some of its main provisions to traditional co-operative principles. Using the Italian reforms as a starting point for debate, this paper puts forth the possibility of generalising a modified approach to co-operative regulation and principles, taking into account efficiency issues, while preserving the co-operative identity.
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WP 01 | 09 Financial Deregulation and Economic Distress: Is There a Future for Financial Co-operatives?
Recent years have seen a broad reshaping of the banking landscape. This article argues that this new reality can be thought of as an opportunity for financial cooperatives to increase their importance in the market and in the areas they historically serve.
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WP 00 | 09 The role of cooperative and social enterprises: A multifaceted approach for an economic pluralism
The role of cooperatives and social enterprises in contemporary market economies has until now been minimized and marginalized by dominant economic approaches. This contribution intends to pursue the improvement of the scientific understanding of cooperative and social enterprises through the in-depth study of the related theoretical models.
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Books
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Intermediate communities, opportunity for politics
This volume analyzes the role of political parties in democracies and their difficulty in engaging citizens. Chapter XI edited by Gianluca Salvatori and Jacopo Sforzi explores how communities can redefine political participation through general interest-oriented initiatives.
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Non ho mai smesso di ragionare. Social enterprise and entrepreneurial biodiversity
This volume is a valuable collection of speeches, publications, interviews and unpublished writings by Prof. Carlo Borzaga, who in his forty years of professional activity has explored the role of cooperatives and social enterprises, defending organizational biodiversity against the standardization of the market.
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PRACTICAL GUIDE TO CO-PLANNING AND CO-DESIGN. STRATEGIES AND TOOLS FOR BUILDING COLLABORATIVE AGENDAS
This text is an essential guide for practitioners and managers of public and third sector services, providing a comprehensive toolkit for the effective adoption of the new collaborative tools.
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THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE REVOLUTION. FOR A RENEWED PROTAGONISM OF CIVIL SOCIETY
A biography of social enterprise both to encourage the adoption of policies that enhance the renewed prominence of civil society and the reacquisition by social enterprises of full awareness of their own specificity.
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GIVING SPACE. CIVIL SOCIETY AND PUBLIC POLICY
"Giving Space" explores how the Third Sector, over 40 years, has influenced political institutions by promoting values such as inclusion and reducing inequality, emphasizing the importance of its political vocation in shaping the future of social policies.
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Documents
See all the documents (24)Food Coop. Operating Instructions
The research "Le Food Coop: Istruzioni per l'uso" is a practical and scientific guide for aspiring entrepreneurs that outlines the characteristics and development of food coops, particularly in Italy, and emphasizes their potential for replication in other contexts.
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Migrants, Refugees and the Social and Solidarity Economy
The entry particularly pays attention to the comparative advantages that SSE has in providing services to migrants and refugees, and introduces three empirical cases.
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The Finance Sector and the Social and Solidarity Economy
The entry explains the contribution of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) to strengthening social control over the finance sector for sustainable development. It highlights the role of SSE in developing financing mechanisms for the socio-economic development of deprived areas and vulnerable groups of people.
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Financing the Social and Solidarity Economy
The entry presents a list of financial instruments organised according to five broad categories: social base, surpluses and assets, grants, debt, equity. Each group shortly defines financial mechanisms that are, at least in principle, available to SSE.
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Contribution on the KPIs to monitor the implementation of industrial strategy
This paper reflects on the desirability of introducing specific criteria for quantifying the contribution of social economy organizations to the welfare of an area, thus providing an important tool to support EU policies.
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The Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity (JEOD) is an international scientific journal published by Euricse. The focus is on theoretical and empirical research on different enterprise types and organizational models, including (but not limited to) social enterprises, cooperatives, mutuals, nonprofit organizations and foundations. It places strong emphasis on their institutional and socio-economic contexts, as well as on their organizational features, practices, stakeholders and the development of communities and localities. JEOD also welcomes comparative research between different organizations and enterprise types, including different ownership and governance models, corporate social responsibility and network types.
All articles are available online, at the journal’s official website.