[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/trn/csnjrn/v1i1p37-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economies of Scale Versus Participation: a Co-operative Dilemma?

Author

Listed:
  • Derek C. Jones

    (Hamilton College)

  • Panu Kalmi

    (University of Vaasa)

Abstract
We examine the proposition that, in co-operatives, the need for democracy must clash with efficiency demands. To shed light on diverse issues surrounding this claim we distinguish different forms of co-operatives and identify different meanings of democratic governance and forms of economies of scale. One focus is on democratic decision-making within individual coops, including tensions between members and managers and/or boards, and how processes often labeled as “degeneration” can be averted. Another focus is on co-ordination problems among and between groups of coops in a network, or second tier co-ops, and how innovative forms of monitoring and forms of corporate governance may be expected to emerge in response to these potential difficulties. We also integrate evidence drawn from the available econometrics literature with this discussion. Our main source of empirical information is the provision of institutional evidence for the cases of Mondragon and co-operative banks in Finland. We conclude that the evidence for an alleged inexorable trade-off between democracy and efficiency is not compelling, but also note the need for additional theoretical and empirical work.

Suggested Citation

  • Derek C. Jones & Panu Kalmi, 2012. "Economies of Scale Versus Participation: a Co-operative Dilemma?," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 1(1), pages 37-64, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:trn:csnjrn:v:1:i:1:p:37-64
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://jeodonline.com/jeod_articles/economies-of-scale-versus-participation-a-co-operative-dilemma/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saul Estrin & Derek C. Jones, 1992. "The Viability of Employee-Owned Firms: Evidence from France," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 45(2), pages 323-338, January.
    2. Joshi, Sumit & Smith, Stephen C., 2008. "Endogenous formation of coops and cooperative leagues," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 217-233, October.
    3. Panu Kalmi, 2007. "The disappearance of cooperatives from economics textbooks," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 31(4), pages 625-647, July.
    4. Lang, Gunter & Welzel, Peter, 1996. "Efficiency and technical progress in banking Empirical results for a panel of German cooperative banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 1003-1023, July.
    5. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    6. David C. Wheelock & Paul W. Wilson, 2011. "Are Credit Unions Too Small?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1343-1359, November.
    7. Dow,Gregory K., 2003. "Governing the Firm," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521818537.
    8. Rezvanian, Rasoul & Mahdian, Seyed & Elyasiani, Elyas, 1996. "Economics of scale and scope in small depository institutions: Evidence from U.S. cooperative banks," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 39-54.
    9. Carlos E. Cuevas & Klaus P. Fischer, 2006. "Cooperative Financial Institutions : Issues in Governance, Regulation, and Supervision," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7107.
    10. Seyed Mehdian & Rasoul Rezvanian, 1998. "Production economies of small depository institutions in the post-FIRREA era: evidence from cooperative banks," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 427-433.
    11. Tara Deelchand & Carol Padgett, 2009. "Size and Scale Economies in Japanese Cooperative Banking," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2009-02, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    12. Bonin, John P & Jones, Derek C & Putterman, Louis, 1993. "Theoretical and Empirical Studies of Producer Cooperatives: Will Ever the Twain Meet?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1290-1320, September.
    13. Ellene Kebede & Dean F. Schreiner, 1996. "Economies of scale in dairy marketing cooperatives in Kenya," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(4), pages 395-402.
    14. Nilsson, Jerker & Kihlen, Anna & Norell, Lennart, 2009. "Are Traditional Cooperatives an Endangered species? About Shrinking Satisfaction, Involvement and Trust," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 12(4), pages 1-22, November.
    15. Ben-ner, Avner, 1984. "On the stability of the cooperative type of organization," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 247-260, September.
    16. Jones, Derek C & Backus, David K, 1977. "British Producer Cooperatives in the Footwear Industry: An Empirical Evaluation of the Theory of Financing," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 87(347), pages 488-510, September.
    17. Estrin, Saul & Jones, Derek C. & Svejnar, Jan, 1987. "The productivity effects of worker participation: Producer cooperatives in western economies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 40-61, March.
    18. Craig, Ben & Pencavel, John, 1992. "The Behavior of Worker Cooperatives: The Plywood Companies of the Pacific Northwest," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1083-1105, December.
    19. Carlo Borzaga, 2013. "Social enterprise," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 32, pages 318-326, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Burdín, Gabriel & Dean, Andrés, 2009. "New evidence on wages and employment in worker cooperatives compared with capitalist firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 517-533, December.
    21. Lang, Gunter & Welzel, Peter, 1999. "Mergers among German Cooperative Banks: A Panel-Based Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 273-286, December.
    22. Guinnane, Timothy W., 2001. "Cooperatives As Information Machines: German Rural Credit Cooperatives, 1883–1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(2), pages 366-389, June.
    23. Stephen C. Smith, 2001. "Blooming Together or Wilting Alone?: Network Externalities and Mondragón and La Lega Co-Operative Networks," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2001-27, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    24. Leggett, Keith J. & Strand, Robert W., 2002. "Membership growth, multiple membership groups and agency control at credit unions," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 37-46.
    25. William R. Emmons & Frank A. Schmid, 1999. "Credit unions and the common bond," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 81(Sep), pages 41-64.
    26. Mr. Wim Fonteyne, 2007. "Cooperative Banks in Europe—Policy Issues," IMF Working Papers 2007/159, International Monetary Fund.
    27. Jerker Nilsson & Gunnar L.H. Svendsen & Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, 2012. "Are Large and Complex Agricultural Cooperatives Losing Their Social Capital?," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 187-204, March.
    28. Giovanni Ferri & Panu Kalmi & Eeva Kerola, 2015. "Organizational Structure and Performance in European Banks: A Reassessment," Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms, in: Advances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory & Labor-Managed Firms, volume 16, pages 109-141, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    29. Gorton, Gary & Schmid, Frank, 1999. "Corporate governance, ownership dispersion and efficiency: Empirical evidence from Austrian cooperative banking," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 119-140, June.
    30. repec:bla:scandj:v:92:y:1990:i:3:p:437-51 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mikko MAKINEN & Derek C. JONES, 2015. "Comparative Efficiency Between Cooperative, Savings And Commercial Banks In Europe Using The Frontier Approach," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(3), pages 401-420, September.
    2. Anaïs Périlleux & Annabel Vanroose & Bert D'Espallier, 2016. "Are Financial Cooperatives Crowded out by Commercial Banks in the Process of Financial Sector Development?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 108-134, February.
    3. Anne Musson & Damien Rousselière, 2020. "Exploring the effect of crisis on cooperatives: a Bayesian performance analysis of French craftsmen cooperatives," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(25), pages 2657-2678, May.
    4. Dean, Andrés, 2019. "Do successful worker-managed firms degenerate?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 317-329.
    5. Simon Cornée & Madeg Le Guernic & Damien Rousselière, 2020. "Governing Common-Property Assets: Theory and Evidence from Agriculture," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(4), pages 691-710, November.
    6. Paolo Coccorese & Giovanni Ferri & Fabiola Spiniello, 2017. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on post-M&A efficiency in Italy," CERBE Working Papers wpC18, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    7. Pier Angelo MORI, 2014. "Community And Cooperation: The Evolution Of Cooperatives Towards New Models Of Citizens' Democratic Participation In Public Services Provision," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 85(3), pages 327-352, September.
    8. Hans Groeneveld, 2020. "Reconciling different truths about isomorphic pressure and distinctive behavior at European cooperative banks: Back to the future with Raiffeisen's principles," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 359-386, September.
    9. Maged Eid & Federico Mart nez-Carrasco Pleite, 2014. "International Year of Cooperatives and the 2020 Vision," Euricse Working Papers 1471, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    10. Andrés Dean, 2023. "Membership Heterogeneity and Workplace democracy," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 23-19, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    11. Coccorese, Paolo & Ferri, Giovanni, 2020. "Are mergers among cooperative banks worth a dime? Evidence on efficiency effects of M&As in Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 147-164.
    12. 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.
    13. Simão, Gustavo Leonardo & Antonialli, Luiz Marcelo & Netto, Túlio Carvalho C. de Souza & Santos, Antonio Carlos dos, 2017. "Strategic Institutional Management in Dairy Cooperatives – a theoretical appointment," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 55(4), January.
    14. Lorea Narvaiza & Cristina Aragon & Cristina Iturrioz & Julie Bayle-Cordier & Sandrine Stervinou, 2017. "Cooperative Dynamics During the Financial Crisis: Evidence From Basque and Breton Case Studies," Post-Print hal-01414168, HAL.
    15. McKillop, Donal & French, Declan & Quinn, Barry & Sobiech, Anna L. & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Cooperative financial institutions: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Derek C. Jones & Panu Kalmi, 2013. "Cooperative enterprise," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 8, pages 85-93, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Guillermo Alves & Gabriel Burdin & Paula Carrasco & Andrés Dean & Andrés Rius, 2012. "Empleo, remuneraciones e inversión en cooperativas de trabajadores y empresas convencionales: nueva evidencia para Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 12-14, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. Dow,Gregory K., 2019. "The Labor-Managed Firm," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107589650.
    4. Gregory K. DOW, 2018. "The Theory Of The Labor-Managed Firm: Past, Present, And Future," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 65-86, March.
    5. Fathi Fakhfakh & Virginie Pérotin & MÓnica Gago, 2012. "Productivity, Capital, and Labor in Labor-Managed and Conventional Firms: An Investigation on French Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(4), pages 847-879, October.
    6. Dean, Andrés, 2019. "Do successful worker-managed firms degenerate?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 317-329.
    7. Arando, Saioa & Gago, Monica & Jones, Derek C. & Kato, Takao, 2011. "Efficiency in Employee-Owned Enterprises: An Econometric Case Study of Mondragon," IZA Discussion Papers 5711, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Gabriel Burdín, 2014. "Are Worker-Managed Firms More Likely to Fail Than Conventional Enterprises? Evidence from Uruguay," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(1), pages 202-238, January.
    9. Fabio Sabatini & Francesca Modena & Ermanno Tortia, 2014. "Do cooperative enterprises create social trust?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 621-641, March.
    10. Francesca Gagliardi, 2009. "Financial development and the growth of cooperative firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 439-464, April.
    11. repec:ilr:articl:v:67:y:2014:i:1:p:202-238 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Derek C. Jones & Panu Kalmi, 2009. "Trust, Inequality And The Size Of The Co‐Operative Sector: Cross‐Country Evidence," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(2), pages 165-195, June.
    13. repec:bla:annpce:v:89:y:2018:i:1:p:65-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Fakhfakh F. & Perotin V. & Gago M., 2009. "Productivity, Capital and Labor in Labor-Managed and Conventional Firms," Working Papers ERMES 0910, ERMES, University Paris 2.
    15. McKillop, Donal & French, Declan & Quinn, Barry & Sobiech, Anna L. & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Cooperative financial institutions: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Artz, Georgeanne M. & Kim, Younjun, 2011. "Business ownership by workers: are worker cooperatives a viable option?," ISU General Staff Papers 201111090800001098, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    17. Burdin, Gabriel, 2013. "Are Worker-Managed Firms Really More Likely to Fail?," IZA Discussion Papers 7412, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Morley Gunderson & Jeffrey Sack & James McCartney & David Wakely & Jonathan Eaton, 1995. "Employee Buyouts in Canada," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 417-442, September.
    19. 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.
    20. Federica VIGANO & Andrea SALUSTRI, 2015. "Matching profit and Non-profit Needs: How NPOs and Cooperative Contribute to Growth in Time of Crisis. A Quantitative Approach," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(1), pages 157-178, March.
    21. Gabriel Burdín, 2016. "Equality Under Threat by the Talented: Evidence from Worker‐Managed Firms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(594), pages 1372-1403, August.
    22. Marina Albanese & Cecilia Navarra & Ermanno Tortia, 2019. "Equilibrium unemployment as a worker insurance device: wage setting in worker owned enterprises," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(3), pages 653-671, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    co-operatives; democracy; efficiency; corporate governance; Mondragon; Finland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • P0 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:trn:csnjrn:v:1:i:1:p:37-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Barbara Franchini (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/euricit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.