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The firm as a common. The case of accumulation and use of common resources in mutual benefit organizations

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  • Ermanno C. Tortia

Abstract

Common resources are quasi-public resources, which are rivaled but non excludable in consumption or in appropriation. While the exploitation of common resources has been widely studied in the literature originated by Elinor Ostron�s works (starting from 1990), the study of common resources inside entrepreneurial organization in not sufficiently developed to date. This paper establishes three dimensions that highlight the relevance of the communality of resources in entrepreneurial organizations: the accumulation and use of common capital resources owned by the organization; the distribution of a rivaled, but non excludable value added among the controlling patrons; and the management of common non-owned resources (for example natural resources) by the organization. The first theme is selected and developed further. Cooperative firms are introduced are instance of ownership form that appears, historically and institutionally, to be particularly keen to accumulate, use, distribute common resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Ermanno C. Tortia, 2011. "The firm as a common. The case of accumulation and use of common resources in mutual benefit organizations," Department of Economics Working Papers 1112, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpde:1112
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    1. Sacchetti, Silvia & Tortia, Ermanno, 2012. "The internal and external governance of cooperatives: the effective membership and consistency of value," AICCON Working Papers 111-2012, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.
    2. Tortia, Ermanno & Valentinov, Vladislav & Iliopoulos, Constantine, 2013. "Agricultural cooperatives," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 2(1), pages 23-36.
    3. Ermanno Tortia & Martha Knox Haly & Anthony Jensen, 2014. "Workers' propensity to cooperate with colleagues and the general population: a comparison based on a field experiment," Econometica Working Papers wp52, Econometica.
    4. Tortia, Ermanno & Knox Haly, Martha & Jensen, Anthony, 2013. "From the Neoliberal to the Participatory Firm," AICCON Working Papers 130-2013, Associazione Italiana per la Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit.

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    Keywords

    common resources; rivalry; non-excludability; entrepreneurial organizations; accumulation; cooperative firms;
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