Abstract
Members' participation in co-operative governance is often seen as crucial to the organisation's operation and survival. However, there is still a dearth of a thorough knowledge of member participation and its aspects. Thus, this paper aims to synthesise the available research from the last ten years to enhance our knowledge of the patterns of the involvement of members in the governance of co-operative. Subsequently, the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses" approach was used to perform a systematic review of the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We discovered 12 relevant peer-reviewed publications that match the objectives of this study with four themes of members’ participation identified. In general, the findings revealed that the majority of the study has mainly focused on members' participation at annual general meetings, while participation via holding positions as board members remain limited. This paper makes a significant contribution by providing a review of the study on member participation in co-operative governance, as well as the patterns of member participation that have been studied using the systematic review method. Some recommendations for future research are given to explore other elements of member participation in strategic decision-making, particularly as the co-operative board.
Highlights
Co-operatives are significant commercial organisations in many areas of the globe (Grashuis & Ye, 2019), and their viability is contingent on the degree to which members participate in co-operative governance (‘Aini, Hafizah, & Zuraini, 2012; Amini & Ramezani, 2008; Sushila Devi Rajaratnam, Noordin, Said, Juhan, & Hanif, 2010)
Previous research has shown that there are two distinct forms of participation in the co-operative's governance: one is via involvement in the general assembly, and the other is by holding a seat on a board or committee (Barraud-Didier, Henninger, & El Akremi, 2012; Bijman, Hanisch, & van der Sangen, 2014; Birchall & Simmons, 2004; Cechin et al, 2020; Liang et al, 2015)
In addition to attending the annual meeting, according to Barraud-Didier et al, 2012), member may increase its involvement in co-operative's governance by serving as the board members
Summary
Co-operatives are significant commercial organisations in many areas of the globe (Grashuis & Ye, 2019), and their viability is contingent on the degree to which members participate in co-operative governance (‘Aini, Hafizah, & Zuraini, 2012; Amini & Ramezani, 2008; Sushila Devi Rajaratnam, Noordin, Said, Juhan, & Hanif, 2010). Previous research has shown that there are two distinct forms of participation in the co-operative's governance: one is via involvement in the general assembly, and the other is by holding a seat on a board or committee (Barraud-Didier, Henninger, & El Akremi, 2012; Bijman, Hanisch, & van der Sangen, 2014; Birchall & Simmons, 2004; Cechin et al, 2020; Liang et al, 2015). In addition to attending the annual meeting, according to Barraud-Didier et al, 2012), member may increase its involvement in co-operative's governance by serving as the board members. Such diagonal degree of engagement (Pozzobon & Zylbersztajn, 2013) allows a member to have a direct impact on the co-operative's strategy, policies, and activities (Cechin et al, 2013) that contribute to co-operative performance
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