From specificity to competitive advantage - The emergence of a new paradigm
ISBN : 9782897991722
Year of publication : 2022
Nombre de pages : 515
Langue : Anglais#French</trp-gettext#!trpEnglish#
Over the past two decades, companies have been (and still are) looking for new sources of efficiency, while most industries have reached stages of maturity and saturation. At the same time, internationally available information and communication systems, at near-zero transaction costs, are leading to intensified interactions between customers, and between customers and companies. As for cooperatives, they are suffering not only the impact of market transformations, but also pressure on the relevance of their own identity.
In this book, two theoretical models are developed: a new cooperative paradigm (NPC), and a cooperative equilibrium model. The combination of these two models highlights the potential competitive advantages of cooperative organization in response to the above-mentioned transformations.
The NPC strategies are: (1) value congruence, (2) psychological ownership, (3) loyalty and commitment, and (4) value co-creation. For each of these strategies, three key questions are addressed. Firstly, what are the competitive advantages associated with them, irrespective of the organization mode? Secondly, how do the foundations of the cooperative distinction converge with the essential parameters to be mastered in designing, implementing and operationalizing these strategies? Finally, what are the sustainable competitive advantages unique to the cooperative mode of organization in relation to these same strategies?
Moreover, for the logic of action specific to the cooperative management model to be expressed on a day-to-day basis, cooperative values, principles and rules need to be articulated within an appropriate management framework. This is what the cooperative equilibrium model proposes.
The final key idea introduced in this book concerns the denaturalizing tendency observed among many cooperatives, leading to an identity malaise. The two theoretical models cited here are highly relevant to the challenges arising from this malaise.
The three models introduced form the first part of this book. The second part offers a practical perspective, and includes several case studies of cooperative management.
Daniel Côté was a professor at HEC Montréal from 1983 to 2013. He taught mainly corporate strategy. He has been conducting research on cooperatives for over 30 years. Since 2006, he has taught a graduate course on cooperative management as part of the Cooperative Management Education Program at Saint Mary's University (Halifax, Nova Scotia). He has also developed an executive seminar on cooperative management that has been offered in Canada and internationally since 2014.
