IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v58y2000i1p17-42.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Logic of Membership of Sectoral Business Associations

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Bennett

Abstract

This paper assesses the logic of membership of sectoral business associations in Britain using evidence from a proportionate stratified random sample of associations. The British system gives no statuatory status to business associations. As a result the size and fragmentation of associations is similar to the US, membership of associations is interpreted in terms of the logic of specific business service demand and the logic of collective activities. Expectations from models of collective action, associability and involvement are used to interpret association membership. The paper argues that the normal distinction between associations as trade, professional or "peak" bodies is too simplistic in not properly differentiating the types of member. The paper employs instead a set of six categories dependent on the type of members: companies, owner-managers, the self-employed, and individuals, as well as bodies with mixed membership, and federations (which are associations of associations). Survey evidence demonstrates that member motives for joining, lapsing and constraining service development differ significantly between association types and tend most strongly to emphasise the logic of individual services as complements to the logic collective activity. Analysis of the rates of joining and lapsing membership show evidence of reluctance to join and high rates of lapsing.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Bennett, 2000. "The Logic of Membership of Sectoral Business Associations," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(1), pages 17-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:58:y:2000:i:1:p:17-42
    DOI: 10.1080/003467600363093
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/003467600363093
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/003467600363093?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bowman,John R., 1989. "Capitalist Collective Action," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521362658, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. I. S. Kukaev, 2015. "The Development Of Industrial Enterprises By Cooperative Interactions: An Institutional Approach," Russian Journal of Industrial Economics, MISIS, issue 4.
    2. Shilei Hu & Xiaohong Wang, 2021. "The Origin of Proactive Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) of Large Firms: Institutional Embeddedness—Driven, Family Involvement-Promoted, or Resource-Dependent?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, January.
    3. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s1:p:837-858 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Hultén, Peter & Barron, Andrew & Bryson, Douglas, 2012. "Cross-country differences in attitudes to business associations during the 2007–2010 recession," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 352-361.
    5. Grant Jordan & Darren Halpin, 2004. "Olson Triumphant? Recruitment Strategies and the Growth of a Small Business Organisation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52(3), pages 431-449, October.
    6. Bavorova, Miroslava & Curtiss, Jarmila, 2006. "What Motivates Farms to Associate? The Case of Two Competing Czech Agricultural Associations," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25770, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Martina Battisti & Martin Perry, 2015. "Small enterprise affiliations to business associations and the collective action problem revisited," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 559-576, March.
    8. Hayley H. Chouinard & Gregmar I. Galinato & Philip R. Wandschneider, 2016. "Making Friends To Influence Others: Entry And Contribution Decisions That Affect Social Capital In An Association," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 819-834, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. R J Bennett, 1999. "Explaining the Membership of Sectoral Business Associations," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(5), pages 877-898, May.
    2. Berins Collier, Ruth & Handlin, Samuel P., 2005. "Shifting Interest Regimes of the Working Classes in Latin America," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9tz0z2gq, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    3. Robert J. Bennett, 1998. "Business associations and their potential contribution to the competitiveness of SMEs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 243-260, January.
    4. Robert J. Bennett, 1998. "Explaining the Membership of Voluntary Local Business Associations: The Example of British Chambers of Commerce," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 503-514, August.
    5. van Driel, Hugo, 2000. "Collusion in transport: group effects in a historical perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 385-404, April.
    6. Leonardo Baccini & Veronica Lenzi & Paul W. Thurner, 2013. "Global Energy Governance: Trade, Infrastructure, and the Diffusion of International Organizations," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 192-216, April.
    7. Evans Ana Maria, 2013. "Building institutional capacity: from pervasive individualism to sustained coordination in small firm sectors," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 163-186, August.
    8. Amy A. Quark, 2011. "Transnational Governance as Contested Institution-Building: China, Merchants, and Contract Rules in the Cotton Trade," Politics & Society, , vol. 39(1), pages 3-39, March.
    9. R J Bennett, 1999. "Business Associations: Their Potential Contribution to Government Policy and the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 17(5), pages 593-608, October.
    10. R J Bennett, 1998. "Business Associations and Their Potential to Contribute to Economic Development: Reexploring an Interface between the State and Market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(8), pages 1367-1387, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:58:y:2000:i:1:p:17-42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.