Workers Buyout: Why Employee-owned Enterprises are more resilient than corporate business in time of Economic and Financial Crisis? The case of Emilia-Romagna Region

The Workers BuyOut (WBO) is an economic and social phenomenon that has developed since the beginning of the 2008 financial and economic crisis and is still growing. In Italy, its roots can be traced back to the 1970s and today journalists and politicians are publishing reportages and books on this phenomenon. Inside the Italian scientific community, also some economists have dedicated accurate but rare studies to the topic. Nevertheless, the WBO has not yet become the focus of a precise and in-depth research by sociologists, despite its evident social relevance. The present paper is the result of a sociological investigation carried out by the authors and aims at illustrating this phenomenon through the lens of organizational analysis. It is structured in five sections: a general introduction; a description of the phenomenon at the national level, through the analysis of its normative grounds and its quantitative dimensions; a more detailed description of the WBO in EmiliaRomagna Region; a focus on the case study of one firm that turned into a successful WBO; a critical conclusion, highlighting the main incentives and obstacles for the full development of WBO experiences.