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The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives: Reflections for a Research Agenda

Author

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  • Silvia Sacchetti

    (Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento (Italy))

  • Johnston Birchall

    (Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, University of Stirling (UK))

Abstract

Multi-stakeholding is a way to share, or democratise, decision-making power among stakeholders within organisations. Analysis, however, has not fully considered the role of this form of private governance. This paper builds on the observation of past and recent governance experiences in cooperative firms, where sharing decision-making power was associated with single stakeholdership. Though single stakeholdership seemed to be the preferred solution so far, recently multi-stakeholder governance has become more prominent also in cooperatives. In light of this evidence, this paper has three aims. The first is to set out some of the theoretical arguments for and against multi-stakeholder governance, to look at examples of multi-stakeholder models in practice, and to generate from this a set of research questions. A useful distinction to assess how multi-stakeholdership can be applied in practice is between ownership and strategic control. We then use this distinction to present examples taken from the experiences of Eroski (the big Iberian retailer), iCoop (the Korean cooperative that brings together farmers and consumers), and Italian social cooperatives, which place the desirability of multi-stakeholding as one of their constitutional features. Our conclusions emphasise the necessity of improving this field of enquiry by outlining a research agenda on multi-stakeholder cooperatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Sacchetti & Johnston Birchall, 2018. "The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives: Reflections for a Research Agenda," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 7(2), pages 87-100.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:csnjrn:v:7:i:2:p:87-100
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carlo Borzaga & Silvia Sacchetti, 2015. "Why Social Enterprises Are Asking to Be Multi-stakeholder and Deliberative: An Explanation around the Costs of Exclusion," Euricse Working Papers 1575, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
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    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Sacchetti & Carlo Borzaga, 2021. "The foundations of the “public organisation”: governance failure and the problem of external effects," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(3), pages 731-758, September.
    2. Sarah Jenkins & Wil Chivers, 2022. "Can cooperatives/employee‐owned businesses improve ‘bad’ jobs? Evaluating job quality in three low‐paid sectors," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 511-535, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cooperative governance; Organisational design;

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises
    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship

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