World Co-operative Monitor, the economic importance of the world’s leading cooperatives

Project status: on-going

Description

Since 2011, Euricse has been collaborating with the International Co-operative Alliance (the Alliance), the organization that represents the cooperative movement at a global level, on monitoring the size and impact of the world’s largest cooperative and mutual enterprises. Starting from a previous project, called Global 300, Euricse redefined the research methodology in order to develop quantitative knowledge about cooperatives able to combine indicators of economic importance and awareness of the socio-economic roles of cooperative businesses, plus the relative impact on the areas where they operate.

Objectives

An ongoing goal of the project is to continuously expand and enrich the database, with the aim of increasing the number of businesses being monitored and their geographic and sectorial distribution, and the gradual integration of new categories of data, more oriented towards an understanding of the social impact of the businesses being monitored.

In 2016, Euricse developed an additional component of the report investigating the sources and structures of co-operative capital for the top 300 cooperatives from the World Co-operative Monitor. This research, a continuation of the work commissioned by the Alliance’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Co-operative Capital and conducted by the Filene Research Institute has now become an integrated feature of the World Co-operative Monitor with the goal of increasing the scope of research in the future.

Main results

A specific data bank, unique in the world, a starting point for researchers and academics, has been created for the study of the size and relevance of cooperatives in different continents and activity sectors. This tool is particularly effective for bringing the attention of policy-makers to the cooperative world. The database contains data collected through an online questionnaire addressed directly to co-operative and mutual organizations. That data is also integrated with existing databases and other data collected by national associations, research institutes, sectorial organizations and others.

The quantitative knowledge obtained from the data bank has led to a programme of specific investigations, by theme, sector and geographic area, in collaboration with other research institutes.

Since 2011 the research has been presented every year in the World Co-operative Monitor report at international conferences or summits. The 2016 report was presented in Quebec during the International Summit of Cooperatives hosted by Desjardins and the International Co-operative Alliance.

Read more about the key findings from the World Co-operative Monitor.

To submit your co-operative data, please fill in the short questionnaire available at this link.

For more information visit www.monitor.coop

Publications

World Co-operative Monitor 2017

Executive Summary 2017

World Co-operative Monitor 2016

Executive Summary 2016

World Co-operative Monitor 2015

Executive Summary 2015

World Co-operative Monitor 2014

Executive Summary 2014

World Co-operative Monitor 2013

Facts and comments 2013

World Co-operative Monitor 2012

Facts and comments 2012

Carini C., Carpita M. (forthcoming in 2017). Are co-operative small? Evidence from the World Co-operative Monitor. In: Michie J., Blasi J. & Borzaga J. (Eds.), The Handbook of Co- operative and Mutual Businesses. Oxford University Press. [IG1]

Carini, C., El-Youssef, H. Sparreboom, T. (2015). The Importance of Statistics on Co- operatives: Why and How Should We Collect Data? In Brown, L., Carini, C., Gordon- Nembhard, J., Hammond Ketilson, L., Hicks, E., McNamara, J., Novkovic, S., Rixon, D. & Simmons, R. (Eds.), Co-operatives for Sustainable Communities Tools to Measure Co- operative Impact and Performance. Saskatchewan (Canada). Co-operatives and Mutual Canada & Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, pp. 18-35.

Carpita M., Carini C., Costa E., Andreaus M., Rigotti A. (2013). Il progetto World Co-operative Monitor: monitorare l’impatto economico e sociale delle imprese cooperative nel mondo. Statistica & Società/Anno 2, N. 3/Lavoro, Economia, Finanza.

Partner

ICA – International Cooperative Alliance

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