Cooperative Structure Research Articles

The DYNAMO Initiative – Improving health system resilience through dynamic modelling of integrated health and care pathways in response to systemic shocks

Background: Unexpected systemic shocks such as pandemics or natural disasters challenge the absorptive capacity of health and care systems to maintain adequate service levels.[1] Strategies have focused on better coordination between services, with multi-disciplinary care pathways being one instrument to achieve coordinated responses.[2] But the co-design process for this type of pathways tends to be too long and involved for fast response required by crises.
 Targeted community and stakeholder engagement: Health and care service planners and providers, service payers, public health and civil protection agencies as well as regional and municipal governments are affected by this problem. They need methods and tools to support ad-hoc design and instantiation of cross-sectoral pathways to address different types of crises. The DYNAMO initiative has brought together an initial group of stakeholders from five countries to start a multi-staged co-design programme that will also include further stakeholders.
 Explanation of the initiative: DYNAMO will develop an innovative software tool enabling stakeholders to jointly adapt existing service delivery processes to systemic shocks and structural changes. This includes sharing and integrating cross-sectoral data to accurately forecast possible outcomes and impacts of alternative pathway configurations. By means of a public tendering process, the participating care providers are developing the software package together with commercial technology providers. Up to now, local pathway modelling groups have been set up at each site. These have identified several ""high pressure"" service scenarios (e.g. future pandemics widespread internet/power outages, recurrent heat waves). For each scenario, alternative pressure points were identified that could have a notable impact on the performance of current health and care systems (e.g. resource or staff shortages). In the next project phase, several technology providers will be selected to co-develop prototype solutions that meet the requirements of the "high-pressure" service scenarios.
 Achieved and expected impacts: The definition of the high pressure scenarios and associated pressure points are a first outcome and showed that priorities for disaster readiness vary considerably between regions. With the software tools and methodologies to be developed, DYNAMO expects to significantly improve the response time and quality of health care ecosystems to a wide variety of systemic threats.
 Learnings for an international audience: DYNAMO is in its early stages and there are as yet no formalized learnings. Experiences and observations shared between projects participants however highlighted two key issues: 1) Responses to universal threats still happen in a haphazard and uncoordinated manner and awareness of the precise issue of multi-disciplinary pathways to respond to such threats is still too low. 2) While DYNAMO focusses on the development of a software tool, there is agreement among participating regions that this needs to be embedded into a regional cooperation culture and structure (a kind of “readiness community”) in order to achieve its intended impacts.
 [1] Adger WN, Brown K, Fairbrass J. et al. Governance for sustainability: towards a ‘thick’ analysis of environmental decision making. Environ Plan A. 2003;35(6):1095–1110. doi: 10.1068/A35289.
 [2] Lewis, L. and N. Ehrenberg (2020). Realising the true value of integrated care: Beyond COVID-19. https://integratedcarefoundation.org/publications/realising-the-true-value-of-integrated-care-beyond-covid-19-2#report
 

Building Collaborative Capacity through formalized and Imposed Cooperation: The Implementation of Health Care Communities in Norway

Today, the nexus of ´co-ordination – co-production – co-creation´ constitutes the new political prism through which the ´wicked issues´ of the public sector is re-imagined, and by calling forth new cooperative endeavors stressing shared problem solving, the welfare state might signal a shift in mode of governance from New Public Management (NPM) to New Public Governance (NPG). In this paper we inquire into an empirical example from the Norwegian healthcare sector, namely the implementation of healthcare communities (HCCs).
 Public healthcare is an essential part of the Nordic welfare state model. Being a multi-dimensional policy field, it is notoriously characterized by both ´wicked issues´ and complexity – in terms of service provision, organizing and governing. Often patients require several healthcare services from multiple providers. In Norway, healthcare is organized in two main parts, primary (municipalities) and specialized healthcare (central government). While this division in theory should lead to a clear assignment of tasks and responsibilities, it has built-in challenges of lack of continuity of care and the risk of services being fragmented. Furthermore, the NPM-reforms during the last three decades has contributed to organizational fragmentation. Problems of service and organizational fragmentation has served as a core focal point for several health sector reforms in Norway during the last three decades. The latest reform initiative is the implementation of 19 HCCs, where hospital trusts and municipalities, through imposed and formalized cooperation structures are expected to cooperate, as well as co-plan, service provision, aiming to make better, more efficient services, and give patients a more coherent and seamless experience. 
 We are interested in why and how NPG-inspired ideas of collaboration and co-creation are translated and articulated into the specific institutional context of Norwegian healthcare, and whether the HCC reform imply an actual break with the NPM-logics – or rather represents more of a continuation adding an extra reform layer, so to speak. In this paper the following research question guides our inquiry: In which ways does the HCC reform as an expression of the New Public Government paradigm represent a break or continuation with New Public Management logics in the healthcare sector in Norway, and how are the concepts of co-design, co-creation and collaborative capacity framed and constructed as the remedy for fragmentation by the policy makers?
 
 Methodologically, this paper is based on critical discourse analysis of official documents central in the development of the reform, as well as a qualitative analysis of interviews with central and local actors, in addition to a study of relevant public governance literature.

Rural cooperatives social responsibility in promoting Sustainability-oriented Activities in the agricultural sector: Nexus of community, enterprise, and government

The agricultural sector and Sustainability-oriented Activities (S-OAs) of farmers are recognized as critical factors to realize a more sustainable future. Hence, this study aimed to present a model for enhancing S-OAs among farmers by integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the structure of rural cooperatives. This research employed the stakeholder theory and a structural equation model to bridge the existing gap in understanding the nexus of farmers, cooperatives, and the government. This aimed to reinforce CSR and, consequently, S-OAs among farmers. The results revealed that the engagement of rural cooperatives in community-oriented ethical activities (C-OEAs) exhibited the first significant step toward enhancing CSR, which significantly promotes trust among farmers and their participation in cooperative programs. On the other hand, findings have demonstrated that a company's engagement in C-OEAs deeply results from its dependency level on the government. It was revealed that increasing external farmer participation, due to cooperative tool utilization, does not significantly impact CSR implementation within cooperatives. Overall, our results exhibited different approaches to strengthen S-OAs among farmers based on the interlinked dimensions of social responsibility. This assists in reinforcing S-OAs among farmers.

Peningkatan Usaha Koperasi Wisata Berbasis Potensi Desa

The village environment in West Java presents beautiful and enchanting natural views. This natural potential can be managed in such a way that it can improve the regional economy. Management can be done through economic institutions, such as cooperatives with a specific business unit, namely tourism or Tourism Cooperatives. This community service activity aims to increase understanding of running a business through legal entity tourism cooperatives, developing tourism cooperative businesses, assisting with the legality of cooperative institutions, and assisting in obtaining business permits through online single submission (OSS). This activity uses the participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method to make conducting community economic business development activities based on village potential easier. The result of this activity is that the cooperative management community has a tourism business development plan document in accordance with the KBLI, strategic plan, work plan, and follow-up to each business development program. Tourism Cooperatives already have complete legality accompanied by various business permits such as Notarial Deeds, Ministry of Law and Human Rights Deeds, Business Permit Numbers (NIB), and Licensing for each business unit owned, with adequate cooperative organizational structure and completeness.

Assessing Technical Efficiency of Cooperative Vis-à-Vis Private Dairy Plants in Andhra Pradesh, India: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This study aims to determine the levels of production efficiencies and their determinants across India’s private and cooperative structures. Stochastic frontier modelling of a panel data sample comprising 14 plants (7 cooperatives and 7 private) in Andhra Pradesh for six years from 2013 to 2019 was considered. The production inefficiencies obtained are then modelled based on the ownership status and percentage of female employment to identify if these affect the variations in the scores. The results observed the presence of production inefficiencies under both structures, but the production efficiency was observed to rise over the period, that is, reducing inefficiencies. The results revealed a marginal but significant efficiency advantage of the cooperative plants over the private plants. The mean technical efficiency of all the firms was observed at 0.69, that of the cooperatives at 0.72 for and that of the private dairies at 0.66. This implies that the average efficiencies can be improved by 0.31 using the existing resources. The cooperative ownership of the plant and greater female employment rate was found to enhance production efficiency. The results can significantly impact policy design for both the state government and private entities. The observed advantage of cooperative ownership and greater female employment rates in enhancing production efficiency could guide policy decisions related to ownership structures and workforce diversity. JEL Codes: C5, C880, Q1, L2

A bibliometric analysis of research on multiple criteria decision making with emphasis on Energy Sector between (2019-2023)

In the present study, a bibliometric analysis of research works that have been conducted over the last five years in connection to Multiple Criteria Decision making (MCDM) and its application in the energy sector is presented. In the beginning, a statistical study of influential publications, journals, countries/territories, and authors was carried out. In the following step, an analysis was performed based on four distinct time periods to determine the evolving patterns of authors' cooperation structure and study themes. According to the findings, there has been a rise in the quality of collaboration between writers, as well as an increase in the number of publications and authors who have contributed to the study on MCDM during the last five years. Researchers should be able to successfully conduct investigations in linked domains with the assistance of the complete and scientific analysis of MCDM. It also concludes that there are more opportunities in the future in the field of energy applications with MCDM, and this can be encouraging for researchers from both fields, as well as those from the industrial and economic fields, to consider MCDM in their utilization of energy alternatives and to make decisions that are informed by such findings.

The nature of extraframework aluminum species and Brønsted acid site interactions under catalytic operating conditions

A systematic investigation of hydrated extraframework aluminum (EFAl) species interacting with Brønsted acid sites (BAS) in H-ZSM-5 is presented to understand the cooperative active site structure under catalytic operating conditions. Static models of EFAl species confined in the H-ZSM-5 unit cell show that isolated BAS protonate neutral EFAl species to form cations. Ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations and enhanced sampling performed at the temperature for methanol-to-hydrocarbon conversion reveal two regimes of stable EFAl species, namely the [Al(OH)2]+ ion existing with two bonds to the zeolite scaffold or as a pore-guest in the form of [Al(OH)2(H2O)2]+. Our results indicate that hydrogen-bonding plays a significant role in BAS-EFAl active site structure, especially at higher BAS density and that EFAl species can function as both Bronsted and Lewis acidic components to alter proton transfer kinetics as well as shape selectivity within these microporous solids.

Impact of HR Practices on DCCB Bank Chittoor - Performance Appraisal

Cooperatives were the pioneers in the field of rural credit in India. The entire rural credit delivery was more or less a preserve of the cooperative credit institutions from 1904 to 1969, when the nationalization of Commercial Banks and the subsequent emergence of Regional Rural Banks in 1975 heralded the adoption of the Multi Agency Approach to rural lending. Even today, the cooperative credit structure has the largest outreach and delivers credit to the largest numbers of clients in the rural areas in comparison to other institutions, although the quantum of credit delivered is second to commercial banks.

Vertical Relationships with Hidden Interactions

In an agency model with adverse selection, we study how hidden interactions between agents affect the optimal contract. The principal employs two agents who learn their task environments through their involvement. The principal cannot observe the task environments. It is important to note that hidden interactions, such as acts of sabotage or help between the agents, have the potential to alter each other’s task environments. Our analysis encompasses two distinct organizational structures: competition and cooperation. Without hidden interactions, the competitive structure is optimal because the cooperative structure only provides the agents with more flexibility to collusively misrepresent their task environments. With hidden interactions, however, the cooperative structure induces the agents to help each other to improve the task environments while removing sabotaging incentives at no cost once collusion is deterred. As a result, the cooperative structure can be optimal in such a case. We discuss the link between production technology and organizational structure, finding that complementarity in production favors cooperative structures.

An exploration of the relationship between member openness and perceived organisational openness at a particular point in the co-operative lifecycle

Co-operatives are essentially relational entities which are jointly co-created by members and the co-operative. This relational co-creation is particularly important in the founding years of the co-operative and at points of crisis and regeneration in the co-operative lifecycle. This paper explores the relationship between member openness towards relational engagement and their perception of the co-operative’s openness to that input (perceived openness) in a credit union context, prior to a major period of restructuring. Perceived openness is examined from two distinct perspectives, that is, awareness of right of involvement as owners (which in this paper we equated with co-operative member ownership structure) and possibility of involvement or perception of organisation openness (which in this paper we equated with co-operative process). It was found in the multivariate Logistic model that possibility rather than right of involvement is related to member openness. This suggests that the process of co-operation in a co-operative plays a greater role than the organisational structure of that co-operative in facilitating member input. This is a significant finding and suggests that greater attention needs to be given to process and openness in co-operative research and practice. It also suggests that co-operatives cannot just draw on their member ownership structure, in building member engagement at time of crisis.

Overcoming barriers of employee ownership in France, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give an updated overview over the development of employee-ownership in Italy, France, Spain including Mondragon, the UK and the US with relatively many employee-owned firms. How have the barriers for employee-ownership been overcome in these countries?Design/methodology/approachThe overview is based on updated descriptions of the development of employee-ownership included in this special issue. The analysis follows the structure of overcoming five barriers: the organization problem; the problem of entry and exit of employee-owners; the startup and takeover problem; the capital- and the risk problem.FindingsItaly, France and Spain have overcome the barriers by specific legislation for worker cooperatives, this includes rules for entry and exit of employee members. Cooperative support organizations play an important role for monitoring and managing the startup problem and for access to capital. The Mondragon model includes individual ownership elements and a group structure of cooperatives. The EOT and ESOP models are well suited for employee takeovers, financing are eased by tax advantages and they are all-employee schemes. While the EOT has no individual risks, the ESOP model has the possibility for capital gains for employees but also the risk of losing these gains.Originality/valueComprehensive and updated overview of the development in employee-ownership in the five countries to identify successful formats of employee-ownership for implementation in countries with few employee-owned firms.

Spontaneous Separation of Immiscible Organic Droplets on Asymmetric Wedge Channels with Hierarchical Microchannels.

Spontaneous separation of immiscible organic droplets has substantial research implications for environmental protection and resource regeneration. Compared to the widely explored separation of oil-water mixtures, there are fewer reports on separating mixed organic droplets on open surfaces due to the low surface tension differences. Efficient separation of mixed organic liquids by exploiting the rapid spontaneous transport of droplets on open surfaces remains a challenge. Here, through the fusion of inspiration from the fast droplet transport capability of Sarracenia trichome and the asymmetric wedge channel structure of shorebird beaks, this work proposes a spine with hierarchical microchannels and wedge channels (SHMW). Due to the synergistic effect of capillary force and asymmetric Laplace force, the SHMW can rapidly separate mixed organic droplets into two pure phases without requiring additional energy. In particular, the self-spreading of the oil solution on the open channel surface is utilized to amplify the surface energy difference between two droplets, and SHMW achieves the pickup of oil droplets floating on the surface of the organic solution. The maximum separation efficiency on 3-SHMW can reach 99.63%, and it can also realize the antigravity separation of mixed organic droplets with a surface tension difference as low as 0.87 mN·m-1. Furthermore, SHMW performs controllable separation, oil droplet pickup, and continuous separation and collection of mixed organic droplets. It is expected that this cooperative structure composed of hierarchical microchannels and wedge channels will be realized in resource recovery or chemical reactions in industrial production processes.

Sino-Russian “energy marriage”: evidence of cooperation from the belt and road initiative

Energy plays a vital role as the lifeblood of economic development, and China’s rapid economic growth necessitates a stable and secure energy supply. In this context, energy trade between China and Russia, under the framework of the of the One Belt One Road initiative, becomes a crucial element of China’s energy strategies. This paper employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to comprehensively analyze the historical, current, and future aspects of energy cooperation between the two nations. Amidst the current international landscape, the energy cooperation structures of China and Russia exhibit complementarity, rendering the energy collaboration between both countries mutually beneficial. Hence, it is essential for China and Russia to reinforce their energy cooperation further, paving the way for a prosperous and symbiotic relationship in the energy sector.

The Implication of Agency Theory in Micro-Business Financing of Sharia Cooperatives in Indonesia

The study examines the application of agency theory to Baitul Maal wa Tamwil (BMT), an Indonesian Sharia Cooperative, in terms of asset growth and socioeconomic implications. The paper examines BMT's cooperative structure, which complicates the agency relationship and calls into question the responsibilities of agents and principals to the finance practises of BMTs in Indonesia. However, BMTs continue to encounter agency issues in their real-world situations. They can employ a variety of financing contracts, including Murabaha, Mudaraba Musharakah, and Qardh hasan, however some may have problems. According to the findings, the paradigm of thinking based on Islamic principles should be examined in the context of BMT. Further empirical research on agency difficulties at BMTs in Indonesia can be carried out with the approval of the Ministry of Cooperatives, SMEs, and Finance.

INVESTMENT COOPERATION OF THE EAEU COUNTRIES IN CONDITIONS OF ECONOMIC INSTABILITY

In the conditions of modern international political contradictions, the main task for any state is to strengthen trade, economic and investment cooperation with neighboring countries. On January 1, 2015, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which unites the states of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, began its work. The purpose of this regional integration organization is the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labor, as well as ensuring the implementation of a coordinated, coordinated and unified policy in the sectors of the economy.Despite numerous studies devoted to the consideration of the foundations of mutual investment cooperation of the EAEU countries, the peculiarities of the modern world economy require studying the structure of mutual investment cooperation within the framework of the main geopolitical and macroeconomic partnership. The article analyzes the main trends in the investment activity of the EAEU member states based on mathematical statistics methods, analyzes the features of the structure of mutual direct investment, the volume of investments in the fixed capital of the Union countries by type of economic activity. In the course of the study, the problems facing the Union states on the way to effective investment cooperation were identified, the investment intensity index was evaluated and the prospects for economic and financial integration of mutual cooperation were determined.

Fostering Perceptions of Gender through Cooperative Learning

This article explores, quantitatively and qualitatively, how gender-neutral groups of pre-service teachers in homogenous and heterogeneous cooperative learning prioritize individual responsibility, promotive interaction, and positive interdependence. The study took place in the 2022–2023 academic year. The participants in this study were 535 pre-service teachers registered on Kindergarten, Primary, and Secondary Education undergraduate degree courses in the Faculty of Education and Psychology (FEP) at the University of Girona. In the study, the CAC instrument (20 items) was applied along with 11 items that were added. The results indicated that the participants scored higher in all the categories of cooperative learning when they were in homogenous groups than when in heterogeneous ones. Female students scored higher than male or non-binary students in all the cooperative learning categories in both types of cooperative structure. In both settings, female students valued individual responsibility higher, while non-binary individuals valued it lowest. Male students valued individual responsibility higher when working in heterogeneous groups. Most students believed that their role did not change when carrying out cooperative challenges. However, among those who did believe that their role altered, the majority were female. The study shows that while female, non-binary, and male pre-service teachers are equally sociable, they develop social skills differently. Diversity in educational institutions should therefore be taken into account as an influence on tertiary students’ development and success in later life.

A REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE OF HUMAN CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS – PART III: SEMANTIC FOUNDATIONS

The design and analysis of multi-agent human cyber-physical systems in safety-critical or industry-critical domains calls for an adequate semantic foundation capable of exhaustively and rigorously describing all emergent effects in the joint dynamic behavior of the agents that are relevant to their safety and well-behavior. We present such a semantic foundation. This framework extends beyond previous approaches by extending the agent-local dynamic state beyond state components under direct control of the agent and belief about other agents (as previously suggested for understanding cooperative as well as rational behavior) to agent-local evidence and belief about the overall cooperative, competitive, or coopetitive game structure. We argue that this extension is necessary for rigorously analyzing systems of human cyber-physical systems because humans are known to employ cognitive replacement models of system dynamics that are both non-stationary and potentially incongruent. These replacement models induce visible and potentially harmful effects on their joint emergent behavior and the interaction with cyber-physical system components.

Cooperativity and oscillations: Regulatory mechanisms of K-Ras nanoclusters

K-Ras nanoclusters (NCs) concentrate all required molecules belonging to the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in a small area where signaling events take place, increasing efficiency and specificity of signaling. Such nanostructures are characterized by controlled sizes and lifetimes distributions, but there is a poor understanding of the mechanisms involved in their dynamics of growth/decay. Here, a minimum computational model is presented to analyze the behavior of K-Ras NCs as cooperative dynamic structures that self-regulate their growth and decay according to their size. Indeed, the proposed model reveals that the growth and the local production of a K-Ras nanocluster depend positively on its actual size, whilst its lifetime is inversely proportional to the root of its size. The cooperative binding between the structural constituents of the NC (K-Ras proteins) induces oscillations in the size distributions of K-Ras NCs allowing them to range within controlled values, regulating the growth/decay dynamics of these NCs. Thereby, the size of a K-Ras NC is proposed as a key factor to regulate cell signaling, opening a range of possibilities to develop strategies for use in chronic diseases and cancer.

Re-Thinking Knowledge in Community-Supported Agriculture to Achieve Transformational Change towards Sustainability

Community-supported agriculture has gained a significant amount of prominence in recent years by offering a more sustainable and morally acceptable alternative to conventional food systems. Their organization offers a modern take on how to manage production by supporting the usage and exchange of knowledge between all stakeholders involved. The leverage points concept argues that re-thinking how knowledge is produced and used in systems is one of the key realms of leverage in which transformation towards sustainability can be achieved. Current sustainability research lacks a focus on deep leverage points that bear great potential for transformational change. This concept, however, revolves around these deep realms of leverage and has not been applied to CSA yet. Thus, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews has been performed at 22 CSA farms in Germany in order to gather detailed insights on the production and flow of knowledge and analyze if and to what degree these CSAs have the potential to leverage transformational change towards sustainability. This analysis helps to understand how certain mechanisms can influence sustainability in a positive manner and promote the usage of these mechanisms in the agricultural landscape. Ultimately, the data indicates that CSAs do bear great potential to leverage sustainability transformation in regard to re-thinking agriculture. Characteristics that lead to this cognition are a highly cooperative, participatory and transparent structure, characteristics that allow for the creation and exchange of information to flourish.

Collaborative Structures in WikiProjects. Wikipedia Users' Activity Case Study

The research presented in the article concerns the development of organizational and cooperation structures from interpersonal interactions in virtual communities sharing knowledge. It is assumed that the activity of communities functioning on the Internet reflects the organization of human communities in the offline space. The main aim of the research was to characterize the structures of cooperation groups that are formed around WikiProjects. The research question was: what is the structure of activity of Wikipedians in WikiProjects in chosen language versions of Wikipedia? The method used in the research is the content analysis method. The author calculated data thanks to the Wikipedia xTools. The numbers of participants involved in WikiProjects were analysed by referring to the Dunbar number concept and the cultural determinants of cooperation, thus referring to the masculinity index (MAS) according to Hofstede. Research has shown that WikiProject members show similarities to the layered community formation proposed by Dunbar. The sizes of groups of active editors are closer to these values. As the WikiProjects group grows, the ratio of declared participants to active participants decreases. The production of value in virtual communities, the ability to work together as a team in physical isolation, is becoming increasingly important. The results of the research may be significant to the knowledge management specialists and virtual communities practitioners.