Advantages Of Cooperation Research Articles

The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives: Reflections for a Research Agenda

Multi-stakeholding is a way to share, or democratise, decision-making power among stakeholders within organisations. Analysis, however, has not fully considered the role of this form of private governance. This paper builds on the observation of past and recent governance experiences in cooperative firms, where sharing decision-making power was associated with single stakeholdership. Though single stakeholdership seemed to be the preferred solution so far, recently multi-stakeholder governance has become more prominent also in cooperatives. In light of this evidence, this paper has three aims. The first is to set out some of the theoretical arguments for and against multi-stakeholder governance, to look at examples of multi-stakeholder models in practice, and to generate from this a set of research questions. A useful distinction to assess how multi-stakeholdership can be applied in practice is between ownership and strategic control. We then use this distinction to present examples taken from the experiences of Eroski (the big Iberian retailer), iCoop (the Korean cooperative that brings together farmers and consumers), and Italian social cooperatives, which place the desirability of multi-stakeholding as one of their constitutional features. Our conclusions emphasise the necessity of improving this field of enquiry by outlining a research agenda on multi-stakeholder cooperatives.

The Logic of Collective Action Revisited

Since Mancur Olson’s “Logic of collective action” it is common conviction in social sciences that in large groups the prospects of a successful organization of collective actions are rather bad. Following Olson’s logic, the impact of an individual’s costly contribution becomes smaller if the group gets larger and, consequently, the incentive to cooperate decreases with group size. Conducting a series of laboratory experiments with large groups of up to 100 subjects, we demonstrate that Olson’s logic does not generally account for observed behavior. Large groups in which the impact of an individual contribution is almost negligible are still able to provide a public good in the same way as small groups in which the impact of an individual contribution is much higher. Nevertheless, we find that small variations of the MPCR in large groups have a strong effect on contributions. We develop a hypothesis concerning the interplay of MPCR and group size, which is based on the assumption that the salience of the advantages of mutual cooperation plays a decisive role. This hypothesis is successfully tested in a second series of experiments. Our result raises hopes that the chance to organize collective action of large groups is much higher than expected so far.

Advantages of EtherCAT Technology and Cooperation with Higher-Layer Network

Advantages of EtherCAT Technology and Cooperation with Higher-Layer Network

Privatization Through IPO as a Tool of Attracting FDI: The Case of Ukraine

This article analyses the use Initial Public Offering (IPO) as one of the priority ways of privatization of large state-owned enterprises, carried out in order to attract long-term investment resources and improve the level of corporate governance in Ukraine. Lack of investment resources in Ukraine causes the need of entering foreign capital markets and attraction foreign investors for privatization processes. The insufficient development of institutional conditions in countries with transformational economies is seen as an obstacle to the introduction of an effective regulation system of privatization processes. The article considers the specific to Ukrainian state-owned company’s problems of conducting IPO. Such enterprises do not meet the requirements of listing of leading stock exchanges, and therefore require the assistance of financial intermediaries and international donors in the organization of transparent privatization through the sale of shares in the stock markets. The author analysed the advantages of cooperation of Ukrainian state-owned companies with underwriters under the firm commitment scheme and risks in case of receiving services from a financial intermediary under the best efforts scheme. The article deals with guarantee mechanisms of support of privatization processes aimed at attracting foreign investments. It is emphasized that provision of additional guarantees will contribute to the inflow of capital. The author proposes a mechanism for the provision of privatization compensatory guarantees to the underwriters by international financial organizations for the successful initial public offering of shares of state-owned companies which are subject to privatization in Ukraine.

Forms, areas, and spatial characteristics of intermunicipal cooperation in the Ljubljana Urban Region

This article studies the strength, forms, and areas of intermunicipal cooperation, and their advantages, disadvantages, and spatial characteristics based on the example of the Ljubljana urban region. Surveys, interviews, data analysis of joint administration and joint companies, and analysis of joint development projects show that cooperation in joint municipal administration is limited to parking authorities and the intermunicipal inspectorate, joint companies dealing with communal infrastructure and traffic, and joint projects mainly focusing on economic infrastructure, tourism, mobility, spatial and development planning, and applying for EU projects. The areas of former municipalities, the municipalities in Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park, and the municipalities that are part of the Development Partnership of the Center of Slovenia connect more often than other areas. The advantages of cooperation include better opportunities for EU funding, economizing, and joint representation of municipal interests, whereas disadvantages include problems with coordinating funding and a lengthy coordination period, which is additionally hindered by unsuitable legislation and a lack of financial incentives, human resources, time, and ideas.

Why Have Only Humans and Social Insects Evolved a Complex Division of Labor

Social species, those that have a complex division of labor, comprise a large proportion of the earth’s biomass. These social species – humans and social insects – are located at extreme points of the set of possible evolutionary paths. The queens of small social insects produce thousands of small larvae, whereas human females invest heavily in their children, who are born already with a very large brain. In spite of these and many other evident differences, social insects and humans have conquered the earth because they share two characteristics: a highly developed system of social cooperation, and a complex division of labor. These observations prompt two questions: If there are evident evolutionary advantages of cooperation and specialization, why have only few species been able to increase their fitness in this way? Why have these characteristics emerged as such extremely different forms of life? In order to answer these two questions, we will focus on possible “transition societies” in the evolutionary paths towards social species. We will argue that, in both the human and social insect cases, sexual selection had a crucial role in the development of the division of labor and entailed that the division of labor required either minimum or maximum unitary investments in the offspring. The species located in between these two extremes could not exploit the advantages of specialization.

PROFIT CALCULATION OF MICRO, SMALL, MEDIUM ENTERPRISES AND COOPERATIVES IN MANADO AND TOMOHON CITY “A CASE STUDY”

This study is intended to learn the advantages of micro, small, medium enterprises and cooperatives in Manado and Tomohon City. This study was conducted at urban area in Manado and Tomohon based on case study approach to 30 enterprises and several cooperatives. The data was analyzed to set up the relationship of profit received. 
 The result of this study indicates the total profit of the enterprises in both cities which consists of micro enterprises by Rp. 1.652.542 up to Rp. 3.740.105 per month, small enterprises by Rp. 5.967.417 up to Rp. 57.947.792 per month, medium enterprises by Rp. 49.921.944 up to Rp. 180.321.500 per month and cooperatives by Rp. 193.811.667 per month in Manado. On the other hand, the total profit of the enterprises in Tomohon consists of micro enterprises by Rp. 2.725.000 up to Rp. 9.452.042 per month, small enterprises by Rp. 6.651.889 up to Rp. 41.669.940 per month, medium enterprises by Rp. 63.666.471 up to Rp. 127.554.722 per month and cooperatives by Rp. 2.114.250 per month.

Cross-Tier Cooperation for Optimal Resource Utilization in Ultra-Dense Heterogeneous Networks

Ultra-dense network is a promising technology for 5G cellular networks, and its approach is to densify the network to enhance system throughput via universal frequency reuse. Traditionally, macro cells and small cells usually operate on separate dedicated channels in the ultra-dense environment. This dedicated channel approach leads to resource underutilization because base stations may not be able to fully utilize their radio resource with fixed partitioning when the traffic load in the network is fluctuating. In this paper, we study this underutilization problem in ultra-dense heterogeneous networks, and propose two adaptive channel partitioning schemes to enhance the system throughput: D2CP and D2CP-C. Both schemes require the coordination between macrocell and small cells, and D2CP-C takes advantage of cross-tier cooperation to further enhance the system throughput. We analyze the proposed schemes based on stochastic geometry, and evaluate the performance via simulations. The simulation results show that D2CP and D2CP-C outperform fixed channel partitioning by 33.37% and 76.01%, respectively, demonstrating that base station coordination and cross-tier cooperation can achieve better radio resource utilization in ultra-dense heterogeneous networks.

COOPETITION OF UKRAINIAN ENTERPRISES IN THE FIELD OF NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE MODERN ECONOMY

The article provides an opportunity for collaboration between the enterprises of the fuel production industry in terms of coopetition both on the domestic and on the foreign market. We paid our attention on the specificity of the combination of interests in the creation of collaborative alliances between the extracting enterprises of Ukraine. We determined the main factors of successful collaboration of enterprises in the field of environmental management on a horizontal level and specified the advantages of cooperation of enterprises in the field of environmental management. We identified the dependence of socio-economic development within the country and the competitiveness of the state on the foreign market through the development of corporate social responsibility within the country. We offered the main principles of cooperation were proposed for successful collaboration of enterprises in the environmental management. We determined the main strategies for the development of regions, where the natural resource extraction is carried out, which can be implemented with cooperation of the extractive enterprises under the conditions of coopetition.

Fratricidal Rebels: Ideological Extremity and Warring Factionalism in Civil Wars

ABSTRACTWhy do rebels kill each other? When confronting a formidable regime, rebels often descend into warring factionalism rather than forge unity across their ranks to reap the advantages of cooperation. This article tackles the puzzle of inter-rebel fratricide. It explores power and resource competition arguments, and contrasts them with ideological mechanisms that can drive inter-rebel violence. It argues that ideological extremity is central to rebel fratricide. Rebel organizations with common ideological origins can still compete with each other based on their degree of centrism and extremism, making them ideologically distant. This proximity-distance paradox makes their cohabitation mutually threatening. Ideological challengers from the same family tree are particularly threatening to one’s group cohesion, and if successful, guarantee one’s political marginalization within the broader movement. Extremist groups are likely to respond to these threats with fratricide, while ideologically centrist ones will rely on other strategies such as balancing, outbidding, or defecting to manage their rivalries. Algeria’s civil war, 1992–2002, is a plausibility probe case study that illustrates these causal mechanisms. The study contributes to a burgeoning literature on the role of ideology in armed civil conflicts.

How to Stay Ahead of the Pack: Optimal Road Cycling Strategies for two Cooperating Riders

Abstract Within road-cycling, the optimization of performance using mathematical models has primarily been performed in the individual time trial. Nevertheless, most races are 'mass-start' events in which many riders compete at the same time. In some special situations, e.g. breakaways from the peloton, the riders are forced to team up. To simulate those cooperative rides of two athletes, an extension of models and optimization approaches for individual time trials is presented. A slipstream model based on experimental data is provided to simulate the physical interaction between the two riders. In order to simulate real world behavior, a penalty for the difference in the exertion levels of the two riders is introduced. This means, that even though both riders aim to be as fast as possible as a group, neither of them should have an advantage over the other because of significantly different levels of fatigue during the ride. In our simulations, the advantage of cooperation of two equally trained athletes adds up to a time gain of about 10% compared to an individual ride.

Marketing Aspects of Russia-The European Union Cooperation in the Field of Education

JEL Classification Codes: F19, F36, F59, F69 1. Introduction Under forming the innovative economy the sphere of education gains a significant meaning being a locomotive of the social and economic development. Gradual unification and formation of the world education system is being taken place influenced by globalization. International cooperation in the sphere of education creates opportunities to exchange the gained experience and expertise, mutual researches and training of the internationally recognized professionals able to work successfully in any country. Such cooperation is very interesting for both Russia and the European Union due to their geographic closeness and forms the basis for the active interaction as well as activation and acceleration of the processes of social and economic development and overcoming of the crisis phenomena in the economy. Under market relations it is to be based on private initiatives and marketing aspects of the Russia-European Union cooperation in the education sphere in the context of globalization; that is the objective of the given article. 2. Materials and methods Fundamentals and practical specific features and marketing trends in the education sphere are considered in numerous researches of such modern scientists as Y.R. Agishev, V.S. Belgorodsky, Dembitsky, V.V. and Zotov, E.E. Vlasenko, N.G. Kuznetsov, E.S. Akopova, N.V. Przhedetskaya, T.V. Panasenkova, N.D. Rodionova, E.V. Polonsky, and others (Athanasenas et cd., 2015; Gorina, 2016; Guskova et cd., 2016; Sazhin and Saraikin, 2016; Stroeva et eil., 2016). Conceptual and applied aspects of Russia's international cooperation in the education sphere are considered in the works of such scientists as O.I. Borodin and M. Borodin, I.V. Kiselev, B.V. Sorvirov, I.L. Gonick, L.S. Shahovskaya, I.A. Morozov, E.G. Gushina, E.G. Popkov, O. Konin, E.I. Novakova, P.V. Taranov, A.M. Basenko, E.A. Israilova, and others (Sultanova and Chechina, 2016; Topcu etal., 2015). The reviewed literature devoted to these issues demonstrated that despite the fact the issue under consideration is researched considerably, there are a lot of gaps connected with indefinite marketing aspects of the Russian and European Union's cooperation in the education sphere in the context of globalization that makes further researches in this sphere necessary. Such scientific methods as scientific research, method of problematic analysis, method systematic analysis, method of comparative analysis, synthesis method, induction and deduction method, method of the graphic presentation of the information as well as the special economic scientific method--marketing mix development are the basis of the methodological apparatus of this work. 3. Results Despite numerous advantages of the Russia-European Union's cooperation in the education sphere: strengthening of the scientific and technical potential, human capital development, economic competitiveness increase and others are among them, currently it is poorly developed. The most important obstacles to develop this cooperation are the following: --the retaining substantial actual differences in the basis of the functioning of the education systems of Russia and the European Union's countries, despite the taken measures to remove them; --unfavourable geo-political situation undermining any initiatives of the Russian and the European Union cooperation including the education sphere; --significant state regulation of the education sphere which prevents the full effect of the market mechanism and the realization of the integration initiatives. To eliminate the mentioned barriers it is necessary to re-consider Russia and the EU relationship that is possible only in the long-run. Let us analyze the preconditions for Russia-EU's cooperation in the context of globalization. The strategy of sustainable and inclusive growth and development of the education system Europe 2020, adopted by the European Commission in 2012, the increase of the international cooperation for the nearest decade is supposed. …

Coding, Multicast, and Cooperation for Cache- Enabled Heterogeneous Small Cell Networks

Caching at the wireless edge is a promising approach to dealing with massive content delivery in heterogeneous wireless networks, which have high demands on backhaul. In this paper, a typical cache-enabled small cell network under heterogeneous file and network settings is considered using maximum distance separable (MDS) codes for content restructuring. Unlike those in the literature considering online settings with the assumption of perfect user request information, we estimate the joint user requests using the file popularity information and aim to minimize the long-term average backhaul load for fetching content from external storage subject to the overall cache capacity constraint by optimizing the content placement in all the cells jointly. Both multicast-aware caching and cooperative caching schemes with optimal content placement are proposed. In order to combine the advantages of multicast content delivery and cooperative content sharing, a compound caching technique, which is referred to as multicast-aware cooperative caching, is then developed. For this technique, a greedy approach and a multicast-aware in-cluster cooperative approach are proposed for the small-scale networks and large-scale networks, respectively. Mathematical analysis and simulation results are presented to illustrate the advantages of MDS codes, multicast, and cooperation in terms of reducing the backhaul requirements for cache-enabled small cell networks.

How many people can the Earth support?

Estimates of the maximum number of people the earth can support have been developed and put forth routinely in environmental debates in UN reports and in papers by scholars or academic politicians trained in ecology economics sociology geography soil science or agronomy and other disciplines. However professional demographers tend to focus upon the composition and growth of populations restricting their predictions to the near term and framing them in conditional terms. How many people the earth can support depends upon nature as well as humankinds social economic cultural and political choices. There is not and will not be one single number of people the earth an support. Earths ultimate human carrying capacity hinges upon future constraints and possibilities which cannot yet be known since they remain in the future. The world still has room to accommodate additional population. However any major population growth is pointless. The population density needed for mankind to obtain all of the advantages of cooperation and social intercourse has in most populous countries already been attained.

The effects of market concentration on costs of local public services: empirical evidence from Dutch waste collection

ABSTRACTDifferent concentration indexes are calculated for the Dutch waste collection market and all show that this market was highly concentrated in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. The estimation results in 2002 show that private collection is cheaper but high concentration increases costs of private collection and therefore (partly) offsets the advantage of contracting out. In 2006, the savings gained from privatisation and also the effect of concentration disappear, probably due to the introduction of a VAT-compensation fund. In 2010, for an area with a radius of 30 km, high concentration increases costs, but for larger areas, this effect mostly disappears. For 2014, in most estimations, this concentration effect disappears. If we include fixed effects for a panel, the cost advantage of inter-municipal cooperation is larger than that of private production and concentration effects also disappear. Overall, these estimation results are rather independent of the concentration indexes used, if we investigate several indexes as an alternative for the Herfindahl–Hirschman index.

Valorisation of Cultural Heritage in Sustainable Tourism

The paper reflects upon the models of development of cultural tourism in the city of Pula, Croatia, through cross-border international partnerships. Confronting global trends with local commitment to sustainable development, the authors set the hypothesis that heritage tourism, based on the strategic valorisation of unique cultural resources, could strengthen the identity and economy of the local community, create new jobs, increase the quality of life of local residents and the pleasure of visitors, improve the image and attract investors. The analysis of European examples of good practice indicated possible models of sustainable management and valorisation of specific categories of heritage, which could at the same time enhance the process of urban regeneration and social revitalization. The conducted research research indicated advantages of transnational cooperation in improving capacities for the sustainable use of the city’s most valuable assets: the oldest historic city core on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, the Roman monuments including the Amphitheatre, the nearby Brioni islands and the legacy of the former Austria’s main naval port with its powerful fortification system.

The Comparative Advantages of Single and Multi-Stakeholder Cooperatives

When co-operatives were first invented, it was assumed their membership would be limited to one type of user. The Rochdale Pioneers favoured consumers, and employee representation was deliberately limited to a set percentage of board members. Similarly, Schulze Delitsch and Raiffeisen privileged farmers, Buchez workers, insurance mutuals those who are insured, and so on. Recently, Italian social co-operatives have developed a different model in which all the relevant stakeholders become members: those who are cared for, the carers, the workers, and volunteers. Also, occasionally dual stakeholder co-operatives have been designed. Eroski, the big retailer located in the Iberian peninsula, has both consumers and workers in membership, and iCoop in Korea has both consumers and farmers. This paper has two aims, to set out some of the theoretical arguments for and against multi-stakeholder governance, to look at examples of multi-stakeholder models in practice, and to generate from this a set of research questions.

Moving Toward an Integrated Framework of Offshore Information Technology Outsourcing Success

ABSTRACTOffshore information technology outsourcing is a popular strategic choice for businesses today. Firms are increasingly outsourcing their complex information technology-based projects, business processes, and services to offshore locations to achieve competitive advantage. Traditionally, offshore information technology outsourcing was a means to reduce costs and/or increase efficiencies by focusing on core activities. Recently, the emphasis has shifted to pursuing it as a strategy for cooperative advantage through resource sharing and building long-term relationships with the offshore partners. However, many such offshore outsourcing relationships fail due to a lack of understanding and proper operationalization of the critical success factors that influence global client–vendor partnerships. In the current study, the authors draw upon existing literature to identify popular theoretical perspectives and key operational, environmental, and relational factors influencing the success of offshore information technology outsourcing relationship. A framework of offshore information technology outsourcing success is then developed by integrating these theoretical perspectives and critical success factors. Exploratory data suggests that the proposed framework is valid for understanding offshore information technology outsourcing success and has important implications for theory and practice.

A necessidade das relações interorganizacionais frente à atual estrutura de mercado

This empirical article objective is to analyze and to identify advantages of the cooperation between the new businesses and the incubator of companies (Inovates) and the technology park (Tecnovates). For this, theoretical references of the Brazilian capitalist structure and regarding inter-organizational relations were presented as a mechanism to obtain competitiveness. In order to reach the objective, methodologically the study used the qualitative and quantitative descriptive exploratory approach, through in-depth interviews conducted with the incubator managers and the technology park, as well as a survey through questionnaires answered by the entrepreneurs. The results allowed us to identify and analyze the advantages of cooperation through these inter-organizational relationships, as a way to enable the development of new businesses and new technologies. The involvement of university-business-government actors is of fundamental importance in preparing micro and small businesses for competition of large national and international companies.

THE CARPATHIAN EUROREGION AS A PLANE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IN THE FIELD OF TOURISTIC ECONOMY

At present in Europe one may notice integration processes and establishment of a great number of Eroregions. It is connected with advantages of cooperation, especially in the borderline areas. In Poland one may notice many transformations in political and economical system and some changes with cooperation with neighbourhood countries. In many cases it is the tourism which has become a common issue. The Carpathian Euroregion plays the significant role in the development of the area.