Modeling multistakeholder cooperatives: A framework for sustainable and socially responsible cooperatives

TY - CHAP

T1 - Modeling multistakeholder cooperatives

T2 - A framework for sustainable and socially responsible cooperatives

AU - Altman, Morris

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..

PY - 2025/1/1

Y1 - 2025/1/1

N2 - The traditional analytical focus on cooperatives is on worker, consumer, agricultural, and financial cooperatives and other single-purpose cooperatives. These types of cooperatives have been interrogated in terms of their socio-economic viability, their contribution to internal fairness and to social responsibility. This is both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. In addition, single-purpose cooperatives are often compared with the traditional investor-owned firms. A working assumption of scholars sympathetic to cooperatives is that these cooperatives should be sustainable, and these cooperatives should also be socially responsible (because it is implicitly assumed that cooperatives adhere to the International Co-operative Alliance International Cooperative Alliance principles). I argue that there is no good reason to expect sole-purpose cooperatives to be socially responsible. Only a multistakeholder cooperative (also referred to as solidarity cooperative) is most likely to be socially responsible and more specifically aligned with the interests of stakeholders who are not members of the traditional single or sole-purpose cooperative. The basic finding of this chapter is that only a multistakeholder or solidarity cooperative or alternative forms of democratic governance internalizes the interests of the broader community. This would be the case even if cooperative members are self-interested.

AB - The traditional analytical focus on cooperatives is on worker, consumer, agricultural, and financial cooperatives and other single-purpose cooperatives. These types of cooperatives have been interrogated in terms of their socio-economic viability, their contribution to internal fairness and to social responsibility. This is both from a theoretical and empirical perspective. In addition, single-purpose cooperatives are often compared with the traditional investor-owned firms. A working assumption of scholars sympathetic to cooperatives is that these cooperatives should be sustainable, and these cooperatives should also be socially responsible (because it is implicitly assumed that cooperatives adhere to the International Co-operative Alliance International Cooperative Alliance principles). I argue that there is no good reason to expect sole-purpose cooperatives to be socially responsible. Only a multistakeholder cooperative (also referred to as solidarity cooperative) is most likely to be socially responsible and more specifically aligned with the interests of stakeholders who are not members of the traditional single or sole-purpose cooperative. The basic finding of this chapter is that only a multistakeholder or solidarity cooperative or alternative forms of democratic governance internalizes the interests of the broader community. This would be the case even if cooperative members are self-interested.

KW - Community

KW - Democratic governance

KW - Economic sustainability

KW - Employees

KW - Externalities

KW - Fairness

KW - International cooperative association

KW - Multistakeholder cooperatives

KW - Productivity

KW - Socially responsible

KW - Solidarity cooperatives

KW - Supply chain

KW - Voice

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105027094446

U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-443-23784-3.00034-X

DO - 10.1016/B978-0-443-23784-3.00034-X

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:105027094446

SN - 9780443237850

SP - 113

EP - 127

BT - Exploring Asian-Pacific Co-operatives in Theory and Practice

PB - Elsevier

ER -