During the last decades, the world economy has undergone far-reaching changes which have shaped the current framework of international capitalism. Gerald Epstein summarized those developments in three words: neoliberalism, globalization, and financialization.1 These processes have deeply affected not only the strategies but also the governance of firms. All forms of enterprise facing these new challenges have, in some way, changed their organizational structures as well as their business strategies. Financial strategies, in particular, have been transformed by the new global market for currencies and new forms of financial instruments. Cooperatives have been no exception to this rule. They have experienced a substantial wave of innovations, and as a result, new forms of cooperative enterprises have emerged. In the United States and Canada, these new forms are commonly referred to as new generation cooperatives (NGCs); in Italy and Spain, they are called cooperative groups or networks of cooperatives. One of the main features of these new organizational structures is the attempt to take some of the advantages of the investor-oriented firm (above all, in capital-raising activities) while retaining the mutual/cooperative status. As Chaddad and Cook will make clear in Chapter 7, the new organizations can be considered hybrid institutions like the publicly listed cooperative (Nilsson, 2001; Chaddad and Cook, 2004; Bekkum, O. F. van, and J. Bijman, 2006). There is no doubt that these innovations in structures and organizational models have been the salient feature of co-ops at the turn of the twenty-first century. Many of the changes have been undertaken to facilitate the growth of the enterprises both in the domestic market and abroad. As historians, we are not in a position to say whether what is now emerging will be the dominant cooperation form of the twenty-first century, but certainly we are justified in naming the last three decades the age of hybridization. At the end of this transformation, an entirely new paradigm with a new set of values and reference models could well emerge. In some cases, the search for new structures has gone so far as to assume the aspect of conversion of mutuals into stock firms. This chapter will deal with that aspect later when we focus on cooperatives that have opted for conversion or demutualization instead of hybridization.
P.Battilani, H. Schroeter (2012). Demutualization and Its Problems. NEW YORK : Cambridge university press.
Demutualization and Its Problems
BATTILANI, PATRIZIA;
2012
Abstract
During the last decades, the world economy has undergone far-reaching changes which have shaped the current framework of international capitalism. Gerald Epstein summarized those developments in three words: neoliberalism, globalization, and financialization.1 These processes have deeply affected not only the strategies but also the governance of firms. All forms of enterprise facing these new challenges have, in some way, changed their organizational structures as well as their business strategies. Financial strategies, in particular, have been transformed by the new global market for currencies and new forms of financial instruments. Cooperatives have been no exception to this rule. They have experienced a substantial wave of innovations, and as a result, new forms of cooperative enterprises have emerged. In the United States and Canada, these new forms are commonly referred to as new generation cooperatives (NGCs); in Italy and Spain, they are called cooperative groups or networks of cooperatives. One of the main features of these new organizational structures is the attempt to take some of the advantages of the investor-oriented firm (above all, in capital-raising activities) while retaining the mutual/cooperative status. As Chaddad and Cook will make clear in Chapter 7, the new organizations can be considered hybrid institutions like the publicly listed cooperative (Nilsson, 2001; Chaddad and Cook, 2004; Bekkum, O. F. van, and J. Bijman, 2006). There is no doubt that these innovations in structures and organizational models have been the salient feature of co-ops at the turn of the twenty-first century. Many of the changes have been undertaken to facilitate the growth of the enterprises both in the domestic market and abroad. As historians, we are not in a position to say whether what is now emerging will be the dominant cooperation form of the twenty-first century, but certainly we are justified in naming the last three decades the age of hybridization. At the end of this transformation, an entirely new paradigm with a new set of values and reference models could well emerge. In some cases, the search for new structures has gone so far as to assume the aspect of conversion of mutuals into stock firms. This chapter will deal with that aspect later when we focus on cooperatives that have opted for conversion or demutualization instead of hybridization.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
