The Social Value of Multi-stakeholder Co-operatives: The Case of the CEFF System in Italy

Citation

Sacchetti S & Tortia E (2014) The Social Value of Multi-stakeholder Co-operatives: The Case of the CEFF System in Italy. In: Mazzarol T, Reboud S, Liminios E & Clark D (eds.) Research Handbook On Sustainable Co-Operative Enterprise: Case Studies of Organisational Resilience in the Co-operative Business Model. Elgar Original Reference. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 285-300. http://www.e-elgar.com/bookentry_main.lasso?id=14609&breadcrumlink=&breadcrum=&sub_values=&site_Bus_Man=&site_dev=&site_eco=&site_env_eco=&site_inn_tech=&site_int_pol=&site_law=&site_pub_soc=

Abstract
Since 1991 social cooperatives have been conceived by the Italian legislation as mutual-benefit entrepreneurial organizations with a social character. The social objective was nested into the mutualistic structure, while the multi-stakeholder governance and the accumulation of socialized assets made social cooperative similar to more traditional non-profit forms. In 2010, the official ISTAT census of social cooperatives recorded about 10.000 active organizations at the national level. The paper offers an analysis of the structure and development of governance at CEFF, as an example of the emergence of a multi-stakeholder cooperative. By analyzing its evolution over time, we aim at shedding new light on the social nature of cooperation, on the ways in which cooperatives can generate and distribute social value across an integrated (horizontal) value chain by means of networking.

Keywords
multi-stakeholder cooperatives; social services; work reintegration; social embeddedness; social costs and benefits