Abstract
Cooperative enterprise (CE) has played an important role in social and economic development worldwide. However, business reality has shifted in an environment that implicates increased interdependence and connectivity among organizations and people, which fundamental changes are transforming the business landscape today. Within business and management research, organizational ambidexterity has been identified as a key factor in successful organizations for short- and long-term sustainability. Ambidexterity is the ability to exploit current capacities and explore new capabilities. However, it is challenging for organizations to pursue long-term sustainability by themselves. Therefore, some actors emerge as enablers of interactions between parties, a link that connects different actors, called intermediaries: an intermediary is generally perceived as a facilitator. Within this discussion, this chapter introduces the CE as an intermediary. In particular, CE can be seen as an intermediary of ambidexterity. This role as an intermediary of ambidexterity allows collaboration between members, CE as a single organization, and other parties to create formal and informal ties, connect various types of actors, enable access to external knowledge, and facilitate the process of obtaining resources, exploiting current capacities, and exploring new capabilities.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Routledge Handbook of Cooperative Economics and Management |
Editors | Jerome Nikolai Warren, Lucio Biggiero, Jamin Hübner, Kemi Ogunyemi |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Routledge |
Chapter | 17 |
Number of pages | 10 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-00-344985-0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2024 |