Journal of Co-operative Studies Vol 38 Issue 2

Peer- reviewed articles

Annual report readership and understanding: A co-operative perspective.

Beverley Lord, Yvonne Shanahan & Alan Robb, pp. 5-21

This paper reports on a study of how members of a major New Zealand co-operative use their annual reports, addressing the dearth of accounting-based research in co-operatives. An important function of the annual report was seen to be giving members an indication of the value of the company and the fair value of their shares. Members read thoroughly both narrative and financial sections of the co-operative’s annual report, yet readers perceived the most important information to be profit. There were differences between investor-owned companies and co-operatives in importance placed on particular information and in which parts of the annual report were focused on.

Explaining nonprofit organisation: The social value approach

Vladislav Valentinov. pp. 22-36.

This paper examines the distinctions between public and mutual benefit organisations withing a broad definition of the nonprofit sector. A social value perspective is applied to delineate the circumstances in which provision by public benefit nonprofit organisations becomes more relevance that provision by government or provision for 'for-profit' firms.

Short papers

'Nonprofits' and 'third sector': From definitional vagueness to potentials for innovation.

Yair Levi, pp. 37-43

In this article it is argued that behind the lack of clarity that characterises such common notions like ‘nonprofit’ and ‘third sector’, there are strong potentials for innovation and change. It is our contention that the notion of ‘nonprofit’ calls for a process of sharpening and specification capable to free it from its definitional vagueness. The notion of ‘third sector‘ awaits its inherent potential for innovation to be appreciated and developed. For such challenges to be met, there is a need for a thinking paradigm that goes beyond the conventional economic rationale, and a new terminology, beyond the mainstream economic language we are so used to. This would allow for a rethinking of the potential role of the ‘third sector’ as an optimal ground where the limitations of the first and second sectors can be averted in favour of alternative organisational solutions.

Book reviews

Common ground - for mutual home ownership.  Community land trusts and shared-equity co-operatives to secure permanently affordable homes for key workers. By Pat Conaty, Johnston Birchall, Steve Bendle & Rosemary Foggitt. NEF, 2003.

Reviewed by Brian Rose, pp. 50-51

Helping ourselves: Success stories in co-operative business and social Enterprise
Edited by Robert Briscoe & Michael Ward. Oak Tree Press, 2004.

Living in the cracks: A look at rural social enterprises in Britain and the Czech Republic. By Nadia Johanisova. Green Books, 2005.

Reviewed by Pauline McClenegham, pp. 52-54

T.W. Mercer: The William Morris of the co-operative movement. By David Lazell. Self-published, 2005.

Reviewed by John Hammomd, pp. 55-56