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The Resilience and Adaptative Strategies of Italian Cooperatives during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

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  • Ermanno Tortia

    (University of Trento)

  • Roberta Troisi

    (University of Salerno)

Abstract

Third sector organizations, like the rest of the economic system, have been heavily affected by the pandemic. The aim of this work is to study resilience and adaptability to crisis in terms of economic results and innovative outcomes of the cooperative business model in the Italian third sector during the COVID pandemic. It uses new evidence from a recent survey on the Italian third sector and consists of two main parts. In the first, the institutionalist literature on contractual failures is assumed as an interpretative key in the comparison between the business model, governance, and routines in social cooperatives versus other non-profit organizations (NPOs) interpreted as third sector entities. In the second, we use the new data from a third sector survey in the Marche region, collected in the late spring of 2021 at the end of the pandemic outbreak. Empirical assumptions concern organizational resilience and adaptation to unexpected negative shocks in cooperatives and other NPOs. The results show that, in the management of the crisis, cooperatives are better able to preserve their human capital and resort to layoffs less often than other NPOs. Shared decision-making, employee involvement, and the adaptability of the work process emerge as dominant organizational characteristics that support resilience and service innovation in cooperatives. The main policy implication concerns the ability of cooperatives to play a stabilizing and a-cyclical role during the crisis and to fill the supply gaps left open by other organizational forms (private, non-profit and the public sector). The originality of the paper lies in its new approach to cooperative organization and in the analysis of the reaction of cooperatives to the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Ermanno Tortia & Roberta Troisi, 2021. "The Resilience and Adaptative Strategies of Italian Cooperatives during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 78-88.
  • Handle: RePEc:hig:fsight:v:15:y:2021:i:4:p:78-88
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    Cited by:

    1. David Monciardini & Laura Rocca & Monica Veneziani, 2024. "Virtuous circles: Transformative impact and challenges of the social and solidarity circular economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 642-660, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cooperative enterprises; COVID-19 pandemic; resilience; contractual failure; governance; economic performance; service innovations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

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