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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More
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. Read More