Sustainability of Worker Co-Operatives

Andreea Preluca (), Karin Hakelius and Cecilia Mark-Herbert
Additional contact information
Andreea Preluca: Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Karin Hakelius: Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Cecilia Mark-Herbert: Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-20

Abstract: With the world of business often criticised for contributing to social and environmental damage, addressing sustainability has become necessary for virtually all business models, including co-operatives. This article investigates ways in which worker co-operatives can contribute to a more sustainable world, using the conceptual lens of Doughnut Economics (DE). It places enterprises, as a supporting pillar of our economies, at the intersection between meeting social needs and operating within planetary boundaries. A descriptive multiple case study of six worker co-operatives in the UK indicates that these enterprises contribute to sustainability primarily by embodying a mission of fulfilling the needs of workers and their communities, rather than just aiming for financial gains. Worker co-operatives are enterprises with highly generative design traits, distributive of the wealth they generate, and to some degree regenerative by design. Their strengths lie in learning capacity and distributive values that contribute to social sustainability. The implications of the study are demonstrated in the use of the DE model for addressing sustainability in the studied worker co-operatives. This article contributes to the body of knowledge on sustainability in worker co-operatives as a relatively less researched form of co-operative organisation, employing DE as a holistic framework which so far has been seldom used in business research.

Keywords: doughnut economics; common ownership; social ecological economics; sustainable business models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11542/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11542/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:18:p:11542-:d:914977

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().