Abstract

Spencer Thomson, a PhD student at the Department of Development Studies, will be presenting on his research on the Developmental Potential of Cooperative Firms. The experience of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation (MCC) in the Basque Country is the ultimate cooperative success story, maintaining its democratic principles whilst achieving international business success, thus disproving present criticisms of such firms. His research aims to refute claims of non-repeatability, by investigating the process of institutional adaptation of the MCC model in the Valencian region of Spain – and to provide evidence that cooperative success is possible in a variety of contexts, and that such success offers substantial socio-economic benefits, but that this success can only be achieved through a ‘big push’ of establishing mutually-reinforcing institutions.