Social cooperatives, which are an important pillar of the solidarity economy, have become increasingly popular and common in Hungary over the past 10 years, especially in disadvantaged settlements, where the administrative burden of public employment is outsourced to social cooperatives....

This paper analyzes the possibility of creating worker cooperatives in which members are paid not through wages but through dividends calculated on the organization's residual income, as stipulated by the economic theory of the labor-managed firm. It is shown how dividends paid to members can be...

Experiment participants in a social dilemma game choose cooperation over defection, even though neither is more beneficial. High levels of cooperation cannot be explained by favorable labels for actions, collusion, k-level reasoning, quantal response behavior, or misplaced optimism about others'...

With their large, often unparalleled, retail outreach to otherwise underserved areas and populations, Cooperative Financial Institutions (CFIs) have significant potential to deepen financial inclusion in rural and marginal urban areas. Greater financial access (savings, credits, payments, among...

The present collection of short papers is an experimental, explorative and introspective German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) project on international and transnational cooperation for development and sustainability. It is the product of internal brainstorming discussions at...

We propose a new model of mixed oligopoly where a workers' cooperative firms competes with a number of profit maximising companies. Building upon a large empirical evidence, we innovate as compared to the traditional literature on the objective function of the cooperative; moreover, its...

Data cooperatives are a type of data intermediary using long established cooperative models and global regulatory affordances to manage data with or on behalf of members (data producers) for the benefit of members or for trade with external queriers (data users).

The maintenance of a satisfactory quality of life in rural areas is fundamental for sustainable development. One of the ways to improve quality of life indicators is through the gathering of rural workers in solidarity economy organizations as these enterprises aim to integrate development with...

Cooperativism, as an agent of social innovation, significantly contributes to fostering a dynamic economy and plays a fundamental role in rural areas. Analyses of profitability in cooperatives versus Investor-Owned Firms (IOFs) show disparate results depending on the methodology and indicators...

Biographical note: Johannes Blome-Drees ist Lecturer am Seminar für Genossenschaftswesen der Universität zu Köln. Philipp Degens, Dr. rer. pol., ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe »Zukünfte der Nachhaltigkeit«. Dr. Burghard Flieger, promovierter...

Cooperatives are seen as the bedrock of democratic control and an alternative to capitalist enterprises but also as sites of ‘degeneration’ of democratic values and hopes. In this article, the authors conceptualize that cooperatives are a prime example of a paradoxical organization, which...

The aim of the present study is to examine the sustainability reports of cooperatives, which may play an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals and help to identify which economic, environmental, and social sustainability indicators cooperatives are currently reporting....

In 2003, China launched the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), a public healthcare plan targeting rural households. While the literature mostly considers the impact of NCMS coverage on health outcomes, we investigate potential impacts on labor supply and household savings levels. To mitigate...

This paper examines the politico-economic determinants of distribution utilities performance in the Philippines and finds that lower political competition in their respective franchise areas is associated with a bloated administrative staff and relatively poor collection efficiency. Hence, a...

Objective: This case study aimed to propose a strategic cooperative model and discuss the challenges encountered by Belt Road Initiatives (BRI) and the need to address those gaps to unleash the potential and impacts of BRI in the long run. It needs to refine the objectives of BRI to enhance its...

Social science research has stressed the important role of religion in sustaining cooperation among non-kin. We contribute to this literature with a large-scale empirical study documenting the relationship between religion and cooperation. We analyze newly available, experimentally validated,...