Cooperatives, family firms, and social enterprises

This course deals with the evolution, strategy, finance, stakeholder relations, and internal governance of cooperatives, family firms, social enterprises, steward-owned enterprises, and other businesses that are not primarily profit-driven. Cooperatives and those other types of enterprises are hybrid organisations, as they often combine economic and social objectives.

This course pays specific attention to the differences in objectives and organisational characteristics among the various not-for-profit enterprises in agriculture, retail, finance, energy, health care, and social services.

The course provides a mix of activities, including lectures, guest lectures, excursions to cooperatives and other enterprises, the writing of a short paper, and group work in which students work on improvement options for a selected cooperative or not-for-profit enterprise. Characteristics of cooperatives, family firms and social enterprises in both developed and developing countries will be discussed. While the main theoretical focus of the course is business management, organisation, and economics, other theoretical lenses will also be applied, including sociological and psychological perspectives.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Understand and explain the principles, purposes and different forms of business cooperation and collective action
• Understand and explain strategies and functions of cooperatives, family firms, and social enterprise, in different sectors of the economy
• Understand and explain the impact of differences in the institutional environment (such as legislation and societal trust) on the organisation and performance of cooperatives
• Identify options that cooperatives and other not-for-profit firms can use to address specific (financial) management issues, member commitment challenges, and stakeholder relations
• Apply the acquired knowledge in an essay
• Reflect, in class, on the scientific literature on cooperatives and other not-for-profit enterprises

Assumed Knowledge:
This course is designed for students at BSc and MSc levels with special interests in the management, economics, and organisation of different types of cooperatives. Basic knowledge of (financial) management and organisation is required.