IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/annpce/v91y2020i3p359-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reconciling different truths about isomorphic pressure and distinctive behavior at European cooperative banks: Back to the future with Raiffeisen's principles

Author

Listed:
  • Hans Groeneveld

Abstract

This article employs a new approach to address a key question in an expanding literature on European cooperative banks: are they still distinctive and sources of social innovation or did they suffer from organizational isomorphism throughout their history? First, we go back to the time when Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818–1888) formulated his principles for the forerunners of many contemporary cooperative banks. Subsequently, we identify areas where major adaptations to the archetypical model of cooperative banks have taken place or are still taking place today. We integrate a detailed explanation of the backgrounds and motivations of these steps with an analysis of isomorphic consequences and loss of distinctiveness that have allegedly emanated from these adjustments. Against the latter common opinion, we place an equally well‐founded dissenting view and formulate recommendations to stay on or return to the cooperative track. Thus, we reconcile conflicting assessments in scientific publications and present a balanced view on the current peculiarity of cooperative banks, substantiated by up‐to‐date figures. With the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, we argue that, now more than ever, cooperative banks could demonstrate their solidarity, long‐term orientation and local anchoring—namely bringing Raiffeisen's principles back to the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Groeneveld, 2020. "Reconciling different truths about isomorphic pressure and distinctive behavior at European cooperative banks: Back to the future with Raiffeisen's principles," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 359-386, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:annpce:v:91:y:2020:i:3:p:359-386
    DOI: 10.1111/apce.12280
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12280
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/apce.12280?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carlos E. Cuevas & Klaus P. Fischer, 2006. "Cooperative Financial Institutions : Issues in Governance, Regulation, and Supervision," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 7107.
    2. Ignacio BRETOS & Carmen MARCUELLO, 2017. "Revisiting Globalization Challenges And Opportunities In The Development Of Cooperatives," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(1), pages 47-73, March.
    3. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Agency Problems and Residual Claims," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 327-349, June.
    4. Patrick Bolton & Xavier Freixas & Leonardo Gambacorta & Paolo Emilio Mistrulli, 2016. "Relationship and Transaction Lending in a Crisis," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2643-2676.
    5. Gert van Dijk & Panagiota Sergaki & George Baourakis, 2019. "The Cooperative Enterprise," Cooperative Management, Springer, number 978-3-030-16279-5, April-Jun.
    6. Hubert Bonin, 2012. "French cooperative banks across crisis in the 1930s and in 2007-2013," Post-Print hal-00800277, HAL.
    7. Martin Desrochers & Klaus P. Fischer, 2005. "The Power of Networks: Integration and Financial Cooperative Performance," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(3), pages 307-354, September.
    8. Jason R. V. Franken & Michael L. Cook, 2015. "Informing Measurement of Cooperative Performance," Springer Books, in: Josef Windsperger & Gérard Cliquet & Thomas Ehrmann & Georg Hendrikse (ed.), Interfirm Networks, edition 127, pages 209-226, Springer.
    9. Roger Spear, 2004. "Governance in Democratic Member‐Based Organisations," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(1), pages 33-60, March.
    10. Panu Kalmi, 2007. "The disappearance of cooperatives from economics textbooks," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 31(4), pages 625-647, July.
    11. Cook, Michael L., 1994. "The Role of Management Behavior in Agricultural Cooperatives," Journal of Agricultural Cooperation, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, vol. 9, pages 1-17.
    12. Laura Chiaramonte & Federica Poli & Marco Ercole Oriani, 2015. "Are Cooperative Banks a Lever for Promoting Bank Stability? Evidence from the Recent Financial Crisis in OECD Countries," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 21(3), pages 491-523, June.
    13. Daniel Tischer & Ruth Yeoman & Stuart White & Alex Nicholls & Jonathan Michie, 2016. "An Evaluative Framework for Mutual and Employee-Owned Businesses," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 342-368, September.
    14. Derek C. Jones & Panu Kalmi, 2012. "Economies of Scale Versus Participation: a Co-operative Dilemma?," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 1(1), pages 37-64, December.
    15. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2009. "The Credit Crisis: Conjectures about Causes and Remedies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 606-610, May.
    16. J. Windsperger & Gérard Cliquet & Thomas Ehrmann & G. Hendrikse, 2015. "Interfirm Networks. Franchising, Cooperatives and Strategic Alliances," Post-Print halshs-01117249, HAL.
    17. Pietro Alessandrini & Michele Fratianni & Luca Papi & Alberto Zazzaro, 2016. "The asymmetric burden of regulation: will local banks survive?," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 125, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    18. Cynthia GIAGNOCAVO & Silvia GEREZ & Jacopo SFORZI, 2012. "Cooperative Bank Strategies For Social-Economic Problem Solving: Supporting Social Enterprise And Local Development," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(3), pages 281-315, September.
    19. Brett FAIRBAIRN, 2017. "Raiffeisen As Social Innovator," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(3), pages 425-448, September.
    20. Vittorio Boscia & Alessandro Carretta & Paola Schwizer (ed.), 2010. "Cooperative Banking in Europe," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-24860-1, Decembrie.
    21. Hans Groeneveld, 2014. "Features, Facts and Figures of European Cooperative Banking Groups over Recent Business Cycles," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 11-33, June.
    22. Rym Ayadi, 2019. "Banking Business Models," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-02248-8, Decembrie.
    23. Fiordelisi, Franco & Mare, Davide Salvatore, 2014. "Competition and financial stability in European cooperative banks," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-16.
    24. Paolo Coccorese & Sherrill Shaffer, 2021. "Cooperative banks and local economic growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(2), pages 307-321, February.
    25. Fabio R. Chaddad & Michael L. Cook, 2004. "Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 348-360.
    26. Mr. Martin Cihak & Mr. Heiko Hesse, 2007. "Cooperative Banks and Financial Stability," IMF Working Papers 2007/002, International Monetary Fund.
    27. Lang, Frank & Signore, Simone & Gvetadze, Salome, 2016. "The role of cooperative banks and smaller institutions for the financing of SMEs and small midcaps in Europe," EIF Working Paper Series 2016/36, European Investment Fund (EIF).
    28. Fulton, Murray E. & Hueth, Brent, 2009. "Cooperative Conversions, Failures and Restructurings: An Overview," Journal of Cooperatives, NCERA-210, vol. 23, pages 1-12.
    29. Jean-Noël Ory & Yasmina Lemzeri, 2012. "Efficiency and hybridization in cooperative banking: the French case," Post-Print hal-01380714, HAL.
    30. Becchetti, Leonardo & Ciciretti, Rocco & Paolantonio, Adriana, 2016. "The cooperative bank difference before and after the global financial crisis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 224-246.
    31. Fabio R. Chaddad & Michael L. Cook, 2004. "Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 26(3), pages 348-360.
    32. Jean‐Noël ORY & Yasmina LEMZERI, 2012. "Efficiency And Hybridization In Cooperative Banking: The French Case," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(2), pages 215-250, June.
    33. Christopher L. Colvin & Eoin McLaughlin, 2014. "Raiffeisenism abroad: why did German cooperative banking fail in Ireland but prosper in the Netherlands?," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(2), pages 492-516, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francesc Relano, 2023. "Ethical and Islamic Banking Compared from a Time-Based Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(4), pages 795-805, December.
    2. Cemil Ozan Soydemir & Mehmet Erçek, 2023. "The resurrection of earlier imprints post mortem: Explaining the Turkish agricultural cooperative movement with an imprinting theory lens, 1888–1937," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 1199-1232, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. McKillop, Donal & French, Declan & Quinn, Barry & Sobiech, Anna L. & Wilson, John O.S., 2020. "Cooperative financial institutions: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Mikko MAKINEN & Derek C. JONES, 2015. "Comparative Efficiency Between Cooperative, Savings And Commercial Banks In Europe Using The Frontier Approach," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(3), pages 401-420, September.
    3. Theo Benos & Nikos Kalogeras & Martin Wetzels & Ko De Ruyter & Joost M. E. Pennings, 2018. "Harnessing a ‘Currency Matrix’ for Performance Measurement in Cooperatives: A Multi-Phased Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-38, December.
    4. Anaïs Périlleux & Annabel Vanroose & Bert D'Espallier, 2016. "Are Financial Cooperatives Crowded out by Commercial Banks in the Process of Financial Sector Development?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 108-134, February.
    5. Kwame Ohene Djan & Roy Mersland, 2022. "Are NGOs and cooperatives similar or different? A global survey using microfinance data," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 641-683, June.
    6. Michael L. Cook, 2018. "A Life Cycle Explanation of Cooperative Longevity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    7. Simon Cornée, 2014. "Soft Information and Default Prediction in Cooperative and Social Banks," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 89-103, June.
    8. Jean-Michel Sahut & Faten Ben Bouheni, 2019. "Profitability and Risk-Taking Among Cooperative Banks in the Eurozone," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(2), pages 1103-1117.
    9. Christophe Godlewski & Dorota Skala & Laurent Weill, 2019. "Is Lending by Polish Cooperative Banks Procyclical?," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 69(4), pages 342-365, August.
    10. Carmelo Algeri & Antonio F. Forgione & Carlo Migliardo, 2022. "Do spatial dependence and market power matter in the diversification of cooperative banks?," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 51(3), November.
    11. Butzbach Olivier & von Mettenheim Kurt E., 2015. "Alternative Banking and Theory," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 105-171, July.
    12. Marcelo Ferreira & Clea Macagnan & Daniel Vancin & Ana Toaldo, 2021. "Technical assistance: A determinant of cooperative member loyalty," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(4), pages 649-668, December.
    13. Cristian BARRA & Roberto ZOTTI, 2019. "Bank Performance, Financial Stability And Market Concentration: Evidence From Cooperative And Non‐Cooperative Banks," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 90(1), pages 103-139, March.
    14. Garcia, Alexandre Schwinden & Gonzaga, André Lucas Moreira, 2024. "How credit unions affect the profitability of Brazilian commercial banks?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 190-209.
    15. MAREK HUDON & BENJAMIN HUYBRECHTS & Anaïs PÉRILLEUX & Marthe NYSSENS, 2017. "Understanding Cooperative Finance As A New Common," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 155-177, June.
    16. Simon Cornée & Anastasia Cozarenco & Ariane Szafarz, 2023. "The Changing Role of Banks in the Financial System: Social Versus Conventional Banks," Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions, in: Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Fotios Pasiouras & Menelaos Tasiou & Constantin Zopounidis (ed.), Sustainable Finance and ESG, pages 1-25, Palgrave Macmillan.
    17. Hans Groeneveld, 2014. "Features, Facts and Figures of European Cooperative Banking Groups over Recent Business Cycles," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 3(1), pages 11-33, June.
    18. Peruzzi, Valentina & Murro, Pierluigi & Di Colli, Stefano, 2023. "The distributional impact of local banking. Evidence from the financial and sovereign-debt crises," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Jasper Grashuis, 2018. "An Exploratory Study of Cooperative Survival: Strategic Adaptation to External Developments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, February.
    20. Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2017. "On the relationship between bank market concentration and stability of financial institutions: Evidence from the Italian banking sector," MPRA Paper 79900, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:annpce:v:91:y:2020:i:3:p:359-386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1370-4788 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.