Cooperatives and Social Innovation

Cooperatives and Social Innovation
Author: D. Rajasekhar
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811588805

This book discusses social innovations by cooperatives from the Asia and Pacific region. Social innovations emerge when the state and market in developing countries find it difficult to solve problems such as poverty, hunger, ill health, poor education systems, inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation. These countries also face barriers to economic growth such as climate change, poor governance, unequal opportunities and social exclusion. This volume therefore addresses the following questions. What are the distinctive features of social innovations by cooperatives? How social innovations bring in changes in the process and outcome of development? After presenting theories of social innovation and a critical review of cooperatives and social innovation, the book presents 15 chapters on social innovations by cooperatives in the Asia Pacific region. These social innovations are related to health insurance, community based tourism, disaster response, climate smart agriculture, use of social media for youth empowerment, training for the emergence of second-line leaders in cooperatives, social inclusion through innovative finance, profitable marketing of organic produce to strengthen economic status of small farmers, digital auction and value addition for income security of farmer members, collaboration between cooperative members and workers for the mutual benefit, worker cooperatives, women leadership and participation, building union-cooperative partnership in finance and rating of cooperatives to promote transparency and accountability. A chapter on innovative services of cooperatives during the time of Covid19 is also included. This volume will be quite significant for co-operators, researchers, teachers, practitioners and policy-makers at the global level. The theme is relevant for international development community and national cooperatives with concern for their communities, which is the seventh cooperative principle of International Cooperative Alliance and the Sustainable Development Goal of the UN.

The Growth of Italian Cooperatives

The Growth of Italian Cooperatives
Author: Piero Ammirato
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2018-04-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351657607

The Italian Cooperative Sector is amongst the largest in the world comprising over 60,000 cooperatives from all sectors of the economy directly employing 1.3 million people. Cooperatives created close to 30 percent of new jobs in Italy between 2001 and 2011 demonstrating that democratic cooperative enterprises can successfully operate in a market economy combining economic success and social responsibility. These offer a viable alternative to profit maximising enterprises and an opportunity to create a more pluralist and democratic market economy. The Growth of Italian Cooperatives: Innovation, Resilience and Social Responsibility comprehensively explains how the Italian cooperative sector has managed to compete successfully in the global economy and to grow during the global financial crisis. This book will comprehensively explain how the Italian cooperative movement has managed to grow into a large successful network of cooperatives. It will examine the legislative framework and their unique business model that allows it to compete in the market as part of a network that includes central cooperative associations, financial and economic consortia, and financial companies. It will explore cooperative entrepreneurship through a discussion of the formation of cooperative groups, start-ups, worker-buyouts and the promotion of entirely new sectors such as the social services sector. Finally, The Growth of Italian Cooperatives examines how cooperatives have managed the GFC and how their behavior differs from private enterprises. It will also analyze the extent to which cooperatives compete while still uphold the key cooperative principles and fulfil their social responsibility. This book is an interdisciplinary study of cooperative development and is designed to inform members of the academic community, government, public policy makers and cooperative managers that are primarily interested in economic democracy, economics of the cooperative enterprise, cooperative networks and economic development, cooperative legislation, democratic governance, job creation programs, politics of inclusion and how wealth can be more equitably distributed.

Scaling Social Innovation Through Cross-Sector Social Partnerships

Scaling Social Innovation Through Cross-Sector Social Partnerships
Author: Thomas G. Pittz
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 129
Release: 2021-04-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1800435401

This book is designed to illuminate the features of cross-sector partnerships that make them powerful vehicles to drive social change. Partnerships across market sectors, involving for-profit, non-profit, and government entities, work because they leverage the advantages of each type of organization to arrive at novel solutions to social problems.

Another French Social Innovation

Another French Social Innovation
Author: Arvind Ashta
Publisher:
Total Pages: 10
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

Type of Paper: Exploratory, descriptive, case study Objectives: In the wake of the global crisis, the role of the financial markets is being questioned and new forms of social innovations focusing on stakeholder governance and cooperation are being experimented. This paper looks into one such social innovation: Coopérative d'Activité de d'emploi Design/ Methodology: This is a case study on a social innovation where the institutions are being transformed to introduce new legal forms. This is a cooperative of entrepreneurs where the entrepreneurs are salaried employees. The research is being based on a review of laws and regulation, literature review supplemented with exploratory interviews of such entrepreneurs. Key Results: The paper finds out differences between these cooperatives and concepts such as nurseries and incubators. It explains the process of evolution of these cooperatives. It points out the limitations of the regulatory regime. Value: The financing of microentrepreneurs without subsidies is a problematic issue. Over-reliance on Microcredit places stress. The sharing of expenses and cost reduction leads to lower needs for microcredit. It also provides the microentrepreneurs a new form of governance and opportunities for networking, developing citizenship and social wellbeing.Impact: If adopted in other parts of the (developed) world, such cooperatives could help overcome downside risk, loss aversion, isolation and poverty traps of unemployment benefits.

Cooperatives and Community Development

Cooperatives and Community Development
Author: Vanna Gonzales
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2014-01-21
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1317850572

In celebration of cooperatives’ contributions to community development processes and outcomes worldwide, the United Nations designated 2012 as the Year of the Cooperative. Today, as in the past, cooperatives have proved effective in bringing people and organizations together to accomplish a broad array of goals related to fostering social and economic innovation, protecting communities against poor living and working conditions, and promoting a better quality of life. Analytically, as both a movement and as a business model, cooperatives hold much potential for generating the types of synergies, collaboration, and productive and social processes that enable community development to thrive in a variety of local, regional and global contexts. This collection of articles chronicles new developments in the ways in which cooperatives are used in a diverse array of community contexts. They offer insight as to what these changes mean, both empirically and theoretically, for community development in the decades to come. This book is a compilation of articles published in the journal Community Development.

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Sector

Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Fourth Sector
Author: María Isabel Sánchez-Hernández
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2021-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030757145

“The fourth sector” consists of for-benefit organizations that combine market-based approaches of the private sector with the social and environmental aims of the public and non-profit sectors. This book examines successful experiences around the world in entrepreneurship in the fourth sector in recent times. The chapters also reveal the pivotal role of the public sector collaboration with private entities in solving the problems of humanity.

Cooperatives and the World of Work

Cooperatives and the World of Work
Author: Bruno Roelants
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2019-07-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000012077

As the world of work and jobs is more uncertain than ever because of various trends impacting it, including the rise of robotics and the gig economy, Cooperatives and the World of Work furthers the debate on the future of work, sustainable development, and the social and solidarity economy of which cooperatives are a fundamental component. Throughout the book, the authors, who are experts in their respective fields, do not limit themselves to praising the advantages of the cooperative model. Rather, they challenge the narrow understanding of cooperatives as a mere business model and raise debate on the more fundamental role that cooperatives play in responding to social changes and in changing society itself. The book is unique in tracing the historical connection between cooperatives and the world of work since the end of the First World War and the recent shifts and restructuring in enterprise and the workplace. It presents a redefinition of the very concept of work, focusing on organizational innovation. This book is published in recognition of 100 years of the International Labour Organization, and gathers together research from leading experts who were brought together at an event co-hosted by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Everything for Everyone

Everything for Everyone
Author: Nathan Schneider
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2018-09-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1568589603

The origins of the next radical economy is rooted in a tradition that has empowered people for centuries and is now making a comeback. A new feudalism is on the rise. While monopolistic corporations feed their spoils to the rich, more and more of us are expected to live gig to gig. But, as Nathan Schneider shows, an alternative to the robber-baron economy is hiding in plain sight; we just need to know where to look. Cooperatives are jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprises that advance the economic, social, and cultural interests of their members. They often emerge during moments of crisis not unlike our own, putting people in charge of the workplaces, credit unions, grocery stores, healthcare, and utilities they depend on. Everything for Everyone chronicles this revolution--from taxi cooperatives keeping Uber at bay, to an outspoken mayor transforming his city in the Deep South, to a fugitive building a fairer version of Bitcoin, to the rural electric co-op members who are propelling an aging system into the future. As these pioneers show, co-ops are helping us rediscover our capacity for creative, powerful, and fair democracy.

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation
Author: Mario Biggeri
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2018-09-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351239007

This book provides comprehensive and advanced analysis of the characteristics of social entrepreneurship in Europe. It offers innovative, up-todate research on the ecosystems of social entrepreneurship, the behavior of social entrepreneurs, their ability to produce social innovation, social capital and social inclusion, and the role of stakeholders in fostering socially oriented businesses. Moreover, it addresses the diversity of the European social enterprise sector from an evolutionary perspective, with particular reference to the rise of social entrepreneurship and the role of new-generation social entrepreneurs throughout Europe. Multidisciplinary contributions authored by experts from business and accounting, economics, and sociology serve the purpose of delivering a holistic study of social entrepreneurship, also providing the necessary data for delivering policy implications on the features of the most effective enabling social and institutional ecosystems. The broad approach, based on different theoretical frameworks and methodologies across numerous disciplines, enables the authors to tackle all of the complex research issues connected to social entrepreneurship in the region. The book builds on the results of the European Union 7FP (European Union’s Research and Innovation funding program for 2007–013)-funded “EFESEIIS – Enabling the flourishing and evolution of social entrepreneurship for innovative and inclusive societies” research project. The central theme of the book is an evolutionary perspective on the dynamics and the rise of the social enterprise in Europe. This evolutionary perspective can be used in an economic as well as a social longitudinal analysis of changing contexts and entrepreneurial practices. The evolutionary perspective will be used as a tool to account for the specificity of developmental pathways in different contexts and countries.

Cooperative Innovation: Science And Technology Policy

Cooperative Innovation: Science And Technology Policy
Author: Fredrick Betz
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2019-01-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9813238712

Research cooperation in a nation is a fundamental key to national competitiveness in technology that supports growth in a national economy. To fully understand why some nations are more successful in innovation than others, one must examine the structure and process of knowledge creation and use — the Science & Technology policy of a nation.National innovation requires progress both in Science & Technology, and also in economy. Research cooperation for innovation is necessary, since science, technology, and production are performed in different sectors of a nation. Universities conduct research science, and science discovers nature. Governments support most of the research in universities, and therefore are the principal sponsors of science. Industry develops most technology and commercializes technology into economically useful products/services. The structure and process of knowledge in a nation thus requires (1) creation of knowledge in science, (2) translation of science into technology, and (3) design of technology into commercialization of utility. At a national level, innovation is thus a complicated concept — proposing a need to identify the proper ways that government-university-industry can cooperate to advance knowledge and economically benefit from innovation. Special programs in Science & Technology policy that have proven beneficial in fostering research cooperation for national competitiveness will be covered in this book.Cooperative Innovation: Science & Technology Policy helps readers understand a practical science & technology policy for a nation. Its contents are particularly useful for government administrators of research, industrial research directors, university research directors, and students of science & technology policy.