Research and Reports

A small selection...

Cooperatives, a better kind of corporation by Paul Hazen

In this article from the 13 May 2010 issue of Forbes magazine, Paul Hazen, President and CEO of the US National Cooperative Business Association writes:

"... the great recession we’ve been going through will lead to nothing less than a new era in the economy and culture of America, a time of vigorous prudence and ethical self-regulation. That's the prediction of writer Kurt Andersen in a recent cover story for Time magazine. Like many cultural prophets, Andersen sees us at the end of the age of limitless greed, McMansions and credit default swaps. He doesn’t know what will take their place but he says he’s sure our innovativeness will come through for us.

His cultural reckonings may be true, but he needn’t have such a nebulous sense of our economic and cultural possibilities. We don’t need vast innovations. We already have a business model – the cooperatively owned business – that has been proven to embody just the kind of corporate social responsibility Andersen espouses, in times of both crisis and prosperity."

Resilience of the Cooperative Business Model in Times of Crisis by Johnston Birchall and Lou Hammond Ketilson

Simply superb, this brief 2009 booklet from the International Labour Organization contains a clear explanation of the cooperative as a business model. It is also full of useful and quotable data on the extent of cooperatives and mutuals around the world, particularly those in the financial sector. Highly recommended.

Leadership Most Cooperative by Paul Hazen
US National Cooperative Business Association President Paul Hazen's article offers insights on cooperatives and how cooperative leaders use the seven principles to create success. From the Summer 2008 edition of MWorld Magazine, put out by the American Management Association, this print-only publication goes out to more than 25,000 CEOs and executives around the world.

Defeating a demutualisation by Alan Robb, University of Canterbury
This 2006 report outlines the battle to save a Tasmanian credit union from being sold off.

Retaining Cooperative Characteristics Amid Globalisation
Nuffield Report from Catherine Bull, 1999
Looks at the implications to dairy cooperatives from growth and change

This is just a very small sample of the large number of reports in the member only area of this website.