Using a stochastic frontier approach, we analyse the imposition of financial sustainability requirement on the traditional social mission of microfinance – outreach to the poor. We also address whether the way ownership is organised and practiced affects the costs of microfinance delivery....

Italian Abstract: L’effettivo ruolo economico delle cooperative, in generale e a livello settoriale, è spesso sottovalutato e non compreso appieno. Ciò è vero anche per le cooperative operanti nel settore agricolo. Infatti tra I numerosi commenti sulla recente e particolarmente positiva...

Growing commercialization and competition in microfinance drives the focus of micro lenders from outreach per se to achieving financial sustainability in serving the poor. Such a goal can conflict with the traditional social mission of microfinance – outreach to the poor. In places where...

Despite a growing interest in cooperatives, the knowledge of real economic, occupational and social dimensions of the cooperative enterprises is still little and fragmentary, at both a national and an international level. This is also the case of Italy, a country with one of the most widespread...

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest on the part of the scientific community (and, more recently, of policy makers) in the concept of social innovation. The notion of social innovation is particularly appealing in light of the difficulties facing traditional welfare systems...

Despite the growing interest in cooperative enterprise, our knowledge of the real economic, social, and employment size of the cooperative movement, both internationally and within individual countries, is scarce and fragmentary. In Italy over the years, a number of public bodies, institutions,...

The paper aims to study the organizational structure, namely the integration developed among social cooperatives in Italy over their thirty years of history. In addition to organizing political and trade union representation, the social cooperation movement has felt the need to develop a system...