Mutual, Cooperative and Employee-Owned Businesses in the Asia Pacific


Book Description

The 25 years leading up to the international financial crisis have been depicted as ‘capitalism unleashed’, containing deregulation, privatisation, demutualisation and financialisation. Yet remarkably, given this economic and political context, co-operatives and mutuals appear to have been gaining ground in many countries, albeit modestly, even before the international financial crisis and the resulting global recession, from which the global economy is still only slowly recovering. The 2007-2008 international financial crisis called into question how appropriate the shareholder-owned model is, certainly if it is allowed to dominate the financial services sector. However the International Co-operative Alliance is determined to make the mutual and co-operative sector of the economy a dynamic, sustainable and increasingly important sector of the global economy. This book looks at the contribution of co-operative, mutual and employee-owned firms to the Asia Pacific economy - both currently and prospectively – and the challenges the standard ‘Western’ model faces regarding employment and output. It also looks at the role of Governments, the nature of co-operatives in China and the role of the state, and the future prospects for cross-border growth of co-operative and mutual business within Asia Pacific, and more widely. This book was originally published as a Special Issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.




Mutual, Cooperative and Employee-Owned Businesses in the Asia Pacific


Book Description

The 25 years leading up to the international financial crisis have been depicted as ‘capitalism unleashed’, containing deregulation, privatisation, demutualisation and financialisation. Yet remarkably, given this economic and political context, co-operatives and mutuals appear to have been gaining ground in many countries, albeit modestly, even before the international financial crisis and the resulting global recession, from which the global economy is still only slowly recovering. The 2007-2008 international financial crisis called into question how appropriate the shareholder-owned model is, certainly if it is allowed to dominate the financial services sector. However the International Co-operative Alliance is determined to make the mutual and co-operative sector of the economy a dynamic, sustainable and increasingly important sector of the global economy. This book looks at the contribution of co-operative, mutual and employee-owned firms to the Asia Pacific economy - both currently and prospectively – and the challenges the standard ‘Western’ model faces regarding employment and output. It also looks at the role of Governments, the nature of co-operatives in China and the role of the state, and the future prospects for cross-border growth of co-operative and mutual business within Asia Pacific, and more widely. This book was originally published as a Special Issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.




International Business Research


Book Description

Drawing on contributions from nine prominent scholars, the book reflects on global aspects of research in work, employment, leadership, management, and business. It follows current trends in global business research and recommends directions for closing the gaps between theory and practice for the benefit of executives in multinational corporations, academics, and international transients. Work and employment remain important and a core part of life, giving not only a sense of purpose, routine and meaning, but also independence and the ability to connect and contribute to the lives of others and society. Leadership styles and management behaviors in earlier multi-country studies did not demonstrate significant associative patterns regarding interpersonal leadership in different countries, and the use of mainstream single-country leadership meta-categories was invalidated. Thus, future studies of leadership should focus on investigating interpersonal leadership across national borders in combination with contemporary trends such as distance leadership, global virtual teams, and intersectionality. As more and more people seek employment across borders, various types of sojourners, specifically millions of low status international workers, with some few exceptions, have largely been ignored by scholars who study international mobility. This failure adds to the research - practice gap between scholars who investigate, and the practitioners who manage, sojourners of all status levels. This book will appeal to scholars in leadership, management, international business, cultural studies and to practicing managers. The chapters in this book were originally published in International Studies of Management & Organization.




Inside the Changing Business of China


Book Description

The rapid speed and size of China’s economic expansion growth is well known. Several causes and reasons are commonly given for this performance, now joined by some commentary questioning how sustainable this is in the light of slowing growth rates and the need for different types and forms of growth – knowledge/innovative, services, etc – as well as demographic trends within the global context of trade frictions and finally the ‘3Cs’ of 2020 – coronavirus contagion and containment. This collection of research provides further evidence about China’s performance in terms of the role of business and management and also points to future issues. This is detailed in terms of the key areas relevant to performance, such as culture, change, leadership, innovation and knowledge. The theoretical and practical implications of the work contained herein is also noted as well as some calls for future work in key areas. Inside the Changing Business of China is a significant new contribution to the study of China’s economic growth for researchers, academics and advanced students of international business, management, leadership and innovation. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.




Perspectives on Cooperative Law


Book Description

This book contributes to the development of literature on cooperative law while paying tribute to Hagen Henrÿ’s significant impact on this field at a global scale. Hagen Henrÿ is one of the most influential scholars in the field of cooperative law. His primary contribution has been in the area of public international cooperative law. His other areas of scientific interest include development law and comparative law. This honorary volume is focused on two main axes -- the essence of cooperatives as well as their activities and their governance. The contributions throw light on how these two axes are addressed by cooperative legislation across countries, regions and continents. In the varied perspectives that the contributions put together, both a theoretical and practical approach, the authors address central, current and crucial issues for the development of cooperative law. The book is a great resource for researcher scholars, as well as policy makers and industry players interested in the topic.




The Cooperative Business Movement, 1950 to the Present


Book Description

An overview of the development of cooperatives over the last fifty years, addressing the major challenges that they face in the future.




Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential


Book Description

Replete with case studies, Waking the Asian Pacific Cooperative Potential applies a novel theoretical framework to aid in understanding meaningful change in cooperative firms, mutual firms, collectives, and communes, focusing in particular on the underexamined Asia Pacific region. It explores the common, albeit competing, objectives of transformational cooperatives that deliver a range of social benefits and corporative coops where the cooperative exhibits the characteristics of a competitive investor firm. The book provides examples of successful cooperatives in eleven countries across the Asia Pacific and reviews the theoretical framework of cooperatives, including issues pertaining to socio-economic, politico-legal, and domestic and international factors. Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential provides early-career researchers and graduate students with a systematic resource of cooperatives in the Asia Pacific, highlighting core lessons from case studies regarding the ideal role of cooperatives in a modern economy and on the enabling factors of the role of the state, the market potential for scale-up, the mitigation of poverty, and civil society. - Provides numerous case studies drawn from successful co-operative organizations across the Asia Pacific region - Advances a theoretical framework to help readers access and understand the reasons for co-operative success in the Asia Pacific region - Develops tools for practitioners to establish effective co-operatives and restructure them to optimal goals




Manufacturing Freedom


Book Description

Sex worker rescue and rehabilitation programs have become a core focus of the global movement to combat human trafficking. Manufacturing Freedom offers an ethnographic exploration of two American anti-trafficking organizations that offer vocational training in jewelry production to women migrants in China and Thailand as a path out of sex work. Activists brand this jewelry a "slave-free good" and then sell it to consumers in the United States, generating racialized circuits of commerce and morality centered around promises of freedom from enslavement and redemptive wages for former sex workers--whom these organizations universally label as victims of trafficking. Workers, by contrast, often contest the trafficking label and object to the moral and disciplinary processes that ensnare them in a pernicious global web of anti-trafficking rescue. In this novel study, Elena Shih argues that these anti-trafficking rescue and rehabilitation projects profit off persistent labor abuse of women workers and imagined but savvily marketed narratives of redemption, thereby propagating a transnational moral economy of low-wage women's work that obfuscates relations of race, gender, national power, and inequality.




Cooperative Strategies


Book Description

The three geographically targeted volumes comprised in the Cooperative Strategies series--the most ambitious effort to date to explore the extent, nature, operations, and environment of cross-border cooperative linkages in North American, European, and Asian Pacific regions. The scholars who contributed to the Cooperative Strategies series include top experts in international strategy and management. Consolidating cutting-edge scholarship and forecasting of future trends, they focus on a wide variety of new cooperative business arrangements and offer the most up-to-date assessment of them. They present the most current research on topics such as: advances in theories of cooperative strategies; the formation of cooperative alliances; the dynamics of partner relationships; and the strategy and performance of cooperative alliances. Blending conceptual insights with empirical analyses, the contributors highlight commonalities and differences across national, cultural, and trade zones. The chapters in this volume are anchored in a wide set of theoretical approaches, conceptual frameworks, and models, illustrating how rich the area of cooperative strategies is for scholarly inquiry. The Cooperative Strategies Series represents an invaluable resource for serious academic study and for business practitioners who wish to improve not only their understanding but also the performances of their joint ventures and alliances.




Co-operative and Mutual Enterprises Research


Book Description

Co-operative and mutual enterprise is one of the oldest and most enduring forms of business, encompassing co-operatives, mutual firms, friendly societies, and credit unions. This book provides an expert overview of contemporary research in this important field. Governments around the world have encouraged the development of co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs), yet relatively little attention has been given to them within the mainstream business and economics research literature. In this book, the author summarises the origins, impacts, and structure of the research field. The book does so by focusing on the CME business model and is structured around a conceptual framework for research into CMEs. It also explores the historical evolution of the CME research field and presents a systematic review of the literature. Foundation theories relevant to CMEs are discussed before detailed discussions of the research from a systems, enterprise, and member level perspective. This book critically analyses the state of knowledge in the field of CMEs which delivers a concise and valuable book for scholars and students in the fields of business and management around the world.