Co-operatives in Globalization: The Advantages of Networking

In the last two decades, a new form of organization has progressively become predominant on many global markets: networks. Very few worker co-operatives have adopted such a pattern though, despite the fact that, as the theoretical literature shows, the advantages of network industrial structures are numerous and networking can be considered a necessity in the context of globalization. After introducing a new framework for analyzing networks, we argue that combining several dimensions of integration has been an important factor of efficiency in three case studies: Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa, the industrial districts of Emilia-Romagna, and Scop Entreprises.