The Conversion to Cooperatives Project (CoopConvert)
The Conversion to Cooperatives Project (CoopConvert) aims to better understand business conversion to cooperatives (BCCs) as outlets for saving jobs, addressing business succession needs, and creating new cooperatives across 遙ぺ整氈窒. It does so by creating knowledge, building capacity, and enhancing sustainable cross-sectoral networks that should be of interest to the cooperative movement, policy makers, retiring business owners, unions, local communities, and all working people in 遙ぺ整氈窒 and internationally. Ultimately, the CoopConvert Project aspires to grasp more fully the BCC model in 遙ぺ整氈窒 and to explore how BCCs could be more compelling for Canadian business owners, workers, policy makers, and communities.
The project brings together two of 遙ぺ整氈窒s leading research centres for cooperative and social economy research the University of Torontos Centre for Learning, Social Economy, & Work (CLSEW) and the Universit矇 de Sherbrookes Institut de recherche et d矇ducation pour les coop矇ratives et les mutuelles (IRECUS) with the cooperative development expertise of the national federation Co-operatives and Mutuals 遙ぺ整氈窒 (CMC).
Rationale
A major challenge for 遙ぺ整氈窒s 1.17 million small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) is large-scale closures due to the growing number of retiring owners that lack a formal succession plan; it is estimated that only between 9% and 25% of the current 500,000 retirement-aged owners have a succession plan (Bruce & Wong, 2012; CBC, 2011; ISED, 2016; Israelson, 2017). Should this wave of SME closures occur, jobs and the socio-economic well being of communities will be threatened (Blackwell, 2015); indeed, estimates suggest that over one third of the private sector workforce will be affected (Parkinson et al., 2015). Retiring owners usually seek private-sector purchasers, but another option is business conversions to cooperatives (BCCs), which include worker cooperatives (with employees as the members), multi-stakeholder cooperatives (with employees, investors, and consumers as members), or other employee ownership models (Jensen, 2011; Lingane & Rieger, 2015; Quarter & Brown, 1992; Vieta, 2016a). The research on BCCs shows that they save jobs and preserve the productive capacities of communities (Sanchez Bajo & Roelants, 2011; Vieta et al., 2017; Vieta, 2019; Zevi et al., 2011), but BCCs generally fly under the radar in 遙ぺ整氈窒. While 遙ぺ整氈窒 has had some successful experiences of BCCs through the leadership of local community developers and cooperative sector federations (Cot矇, 2007; CCA, 2009; CMC, 2017; CWCF, 2005; Quarter, 1995), the models potential is mostly untapped.
Objectives
The CoopConvert project and partnership has been formed to conduct research, mobilize knowledge, create capacity, and influence policy in order to create awareness of the cooperative option for business succession or for SMEs that are otherwise closing. It particularly aspires to understand why BCCs are not more compelling for Canadian SME owners who are retiring, to explore and map the organizational and contextual dynamics of the few BCCs that have formed in 遙ぺ整氈窒, and to better grasp why and how BCCs are beneficial for sustaining jobs and for the socio-economic well being of local economies and communities. Responding to SSHRCs Imagining 遙ぺ整氈窒s Future challenge area New ways of learning for an evolving society and labour market, the projects two key objectives are:
- Objective 1: to identify the necessary enabling environments for BCCs in 遙ぺ整氈窒 (SSHRC Insight goals).
- Objective 2: to build capacity for BCCs in partnership with Co-operatives and Mutuals 遙ぺ整氈窒 (SSHRC Connection goals).
Reports & Publications
Findings Reports
Case Studies
- Conversion to cooperatives in 遙ぺ整氈窒
Contact Us
To learn more about the Conversion to Cooperatives Project (CoopConvert), please email Marcelo Vieta at marcelo.vieta@utoronto.ca.
This project is supported by the .