Multi-stakeholder cooperatives

Multi-stakeholder cooperatives emerge as complex organizational structures that are developed to meet the needs of a diverse social base, when control of the organization granted to a single social group is not the most efficient and/or effective organizational solution. The presence of contractual imperfections in different markets and the possibility of creating added economic and social value through interaction between different reference groups lead to the implementation of multi-stakeholder governance, which involves the formation of specific rules and organizational routines. Multi-stakeholder cooperatives draw on diverse interests, objectives, and motivations, which must be synergistically reconciled through governance and managerial practices. The autonomous formation, self-organization, and self-production of multi-stakeholder rules of governance and organizational routines is analysed, highlighting the potential for improved social interaction and impacts. At a theoretical level, new institutionalism, evolutionary economics, behavioral economics, and complex social systems theory are introduced to explain the evolution of multi-stakeholder governance in cooperatives. Several examples are used to show how this evolution occurs in real-world cooperatives.