Cooperatives

1. Taking Stock & Looking Ahead
Future Directions for Cooperative Research
Prof dr Ruerd Ruben

2. ICA 2018 in a nutshell (facts & figures)
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 >175 participants
 > 25 countries
 35 young scholars
 8 keynotes
 25 parallel sessions
 96 paper presentations
 14 posters
 88 bottles of wine

3. Cooperatives are on the Agenda
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New Wave of Interest  New discourse ?
‘We are not a niche .....’’
“Cooperatives are the best answers to key world problems”
(Wiebe Draaijer, Rabobank)
“Cooperatives can actively contribute to shape the world we want’’
(Simel Esim, ILO)
“Cooperatives are more than a footnote in the system of
national accounts”

4. Key themes & research areas
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 Definitions & typology of coops
 Theories & design principles of Cooperatives firms/networks
 Cooperative organization & governance
 Social capital, trust
 Member relationships & democracy
 Cooperative management
 Value chain linkages
 Learning, training & innovation
 Cooperative Finance
 Cooperative performance & resilience
 Labour relations
 Technological change, ICT & big data

5. Trends & Tendencies in coop research
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1. Growth of coops in new areas (energy, digital, health, elderly
care, platform coops, etc.)
1. Role of coops in change processes (organic foods; social
innovation; climate change adaptation; women empowerment;
voice for indigenous groups, etc.)
2. Search for (uniform) definitions, (standardized) data, standard
procedures, etc.
3. Understanding cooperative adjustment (competition,
mergers, consolidation, life cycle, platforms, etc.)
4. Digging into cooperative/social behaviour (learning
processes, democratic deficit, co-creation, beliefs, etc.)

6. Future directions (1): more & better
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1. Data , Data, Data..... (sharing and standards)
2. How do Cooperatives Work ?
- Complex organization
- Multiple goals/aspirations (trade-offs & synergies)
 Multidisciplinary approach (econ, soc, law, mgt, .....)
3. What do Cooperatives Offer ?
- welfare of individual members (by gender & age)
- Returns to Business operations
- Market competitiveness
- Community outreach
 multi-level analyses
3. From Methodological Pluralism to Mixed Methods
- Case studies
- Surveys
- Accounting/fiscal data
- Experiments ?

7. Future directions (2): deeper & innovative
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1. Focus on Dynamics of Cooperative Change
(evolution, consolidation, hybridization, (de)centralization)
 Panel Research beyond Typologies
2. Demonstrate the Societal Impact of Cooperatives
(cohesion, climate change, inequalities, contribution to SDGs)
 Externalities of Coops & space for Cooperative Dialogue
3. Technology – Organization – Behaviour Nexus
(adoption of innovations, training & education, trust & tolerance for
managing change)
 Understanding the drivers for cooperative behaviour
4. Comparative research
across different settings (EU, USA, Africa/Asia/Latin America) &
between types of coops

8. A bright future ......
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Inspired by
ICA
Researchers

9. See you all next year in Berlin
RRuerd
Ruerd.Ruben@wur.nl