This article focuses on the exercise of mutualist control from a statistical inquiry about agri-food groups. Under mutualist control, financial relations between firms are not only the concern of the influence capacity but also of the activity commitment. Illustrated by the construction of a...

This article focuses on the key question for co-operatives and mutuals of whether they can continue to be genuine member-owned and controlled businesses once they become very large. After providing a commentary on current attempts to revitalise member democracy in the UK consumer co-operative...

The proposal of an adaptation of the National Accounting System (PGC) for the Cooperative sector has seen fruition in a Project, currently at the draft stage, published by the Instituto de Contabilidad y Auditoría de Cuantas (ICAC) and disseminated in several forums with the aim of: being...

Over the last decades of the XX century, many once outstanding consumer co-operative movements disappeared without trace, beginning with Holland (1972) and Belgium, affecting more than half the French movement in 1985/86, and even including giants such as the German Coop AG in 1989/90. The...

The author starts with a general review of co-operative supervision, understanding as such the State activity ensuring that co-operatives comply with the laws and rules regulating them. The following chapter analyses the supervisory function as established in current co-operative law in the...

This paper analyses the fit between business strategy and human resources strategy, and its implications and effect on performance. A sample of 121 Andalusian co-operatives (small and medium sized firms) is used to evaluate the hypothesis through a questionnaire. Our findings reveal some support...

Co-operative companies, in contrast to limited companies, cannot be listed on the stock market, hence no mechanism such as the stock exchange rate exists to assign them a value, so that co-operative executives do not have an external mechanism judging their management. To correct this situation...

This paper analyses the evolution of the leading market social economy organisations in Spain since the Constitution of 1978. The first part concerns a study of co-operatives and workers societies; the second refers to mutual societies. An analysis of the institutional framework, this sector's...

This study analyses the role played by management in Brazilian agricultural co-operatives in terms of how their objectives and their governance are focused. The analysis explores ways of running agricultural co-operatives, comparing traditional co-operatives, which focus on the economic side,...

There has been considerable interest in recent years in the establishment of community retail enterprises; local shops owned and run by the local community often as an alternative to the closure of the last privately-owned shop in the area. Government efforts to give local communities more...