Scaling Co-operatives Through a Multi-Stakeholder Network: A Case Study in the Colorado Solar Energy Industry

Julia Martins Rodrigues () and Nathan Schneider ()
Additional contact information
Julia Martins Rodrigues: Law Department, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Brazil); Università degli Studi di Camerino (Italy)
Nathan Schneider: Department of Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder (USA)

Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, 2021, vol. 10, issue 2, 29-53

Abstract: A new generation of co-operative businesses has struggled to identify pathways to transformative scale in their industries. This case study analyses a multi-stakeholder network of single-stakeholder co-ops that emerged in the Colorado solar energy industry that could be a replicable model for scaling co-operative businesses despite challenges of capital access. To understand how one set of entrepreneurs created national impact through networked co-ops, interviews were conducted with current and former employees of the businesses in the network: Namasté Solar (a worker co-op), Amicus Solar (a purchasing co-op), Amicus O&M (a shared-services co-op), Clean Energy Credit Union (a consumer-owned financial institution), and Kachuwa Impact Fund (a co-op of investors). Through these distinct yet interlocking entities, the network can serve a diverse set of stakeholders while retaining focus at the level of each business.

Keywords: Co-operatives; Business networks; Solar energy; Social entrepreneurship; Sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G3 J54 L14 P13 Q01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://jeodonline.com/jeod_articles/scaling-co-op ... lar-energy-industry/ (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trn:csnjrn:v:10:i:2:p:29-53

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity from European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Barbara Franchini ().