Research on cooperatives Research motivations, methodology and publishing approaches

www.ehu.es/basterretxea
Imanol Basterretxea
University of the Basque Country, Spain
Research on cooperatives.
Reflections on research motivations, methodology
and publishing approaches.
Université de Limoges.
Ecole doctorale "Sociétés et Organisations"
Limoges, France, 26 Janvier 2012

Researching on cooperatives
1 ) What is Social Economy?… too many theoretical approaches related to the
Social Economy concept.
2) Some possible risks of researchers on cooperatives:
– Being too passionate and lack of objectivity.
– Methodological difficulties in quantitative studies:
• Relatively small population
• Extremely small population when the study is limited to one single industry
• Very large response rate needed
– Scientific curiosity is not enough. We don’t pay our research out of our pocket.
– Scarcity of journals to communicate your findings.
3) In what conferences and meetings should I present my papers?
4) Publish or perish. Selecting a journal to submit my work on cooperatives.
– ISI (Thomson Reuters) journals, a very difficult but possible task.
– Specialized Journals.
5) “Comparative research and publication approach on cooperatives vs capital
firms: an intelligent and synergic move.
6) Some examples of research on cooperatives.
7) Open Discussion

1) What is Social Economy?… too many
theoretical approaches related to the Social
Economy concept.
• Is there really a shared core identity, or is
Social Economy “out of focus”?
CHAPTER 3
IDENTIFICATION OF THE ACTORS OR GROUPS INCLUDED IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY CONCEPT
3. Identification of the actors or groups included in the Social Economy concept
3.1. A definition of the Social Economy that fits in with the national accounts systems
3.2. The market or business sub-sector of the Social Economy
A. Co-operatives
B. Mutual societies
C. Social economy business groups
D. Other social economy companies (social enterprises, sociedades
laborales,…)
E. Non-profit institutions serving social economy entities
3.3. The non-market sub-sector of the Social Economy
Non-profit institutions serving households' (NPISH),
'
3.4. The Social Economy: pluralism and shared core identity

• Papers on NGO management
• Papers on non-profit organiztions
• Papers on public policies

1) What is Social Economy?… too many
theoretical approaches related to the Social
Economy concept.
• Pluralism of concepts
• Pluralism of science fields
• Pluralism of methodologies

Focus on
cooperatives

2) Some possible risks of
researchers on cooperatives:
• Being too passionate and lack of
objectivity.
– Added problem 1: lack of distance (Many times, managers
and cooperative founders, or employees as authors)
– Added problem 2: preference for qualitative research,
interviews with managers, internal documents and
publications,… interested information given.

• Being too passionate and lack of objectivity.
– Sometimes, facts running counter to theories and
wishful thinking
– Halo effect (sometimes positive, sometimes negative)

• Methodological difficulties in quantitative studies:
– Relatively small population
– Extremely small population when the
study is limited to one single industry
– Very large response rate needed
– Even more difficult when two respondents per firm are needed,
or when a longitudinal approach (several waves of collection) is
necessary.

Scientific curiosity is
important,
We love solving problems, we are
curious about how things work,
about non ordinary things (and
cooperatives are not as other
ordinary firms), …
but curiosity is not
enough.

We don’t pay our research out
of our pocket.
• We do science in serve of society
• Money is spent in research, but if research is not
communicated, is useless, is wasted.
• Research is a dialogue and a collective endeavor.
We build on and use each other’s work and for this
to be possible our research must be available for
others

Journals on Cooperatives
Scarcity of journals to
communicate your
findings

3) In what conferences and meetings
should I present my papers?
The next one, in 2013.

4) Publish or perish. Selecting a journal
to submit my work on cooperatives.

to submit my work on cooperativism.
• Who my audience should be?
• Which journal fits my audience?
– Aims and Scope of Journal
– Field (cooperatives, SE…) vs General Journals
– Has this Journal already published papers on this Topic?
• Style of Journal
– Quantitative vs Qualitative
– Theory vs Empirical vs Applied
• Level of significance of the work we have done? (novelty, results,…)
and level of the Journal
– “If you are not getting rejected, you are aimed too low” Donald Siegel
(Editor JTT, Assoc Ed, JBV)
http://www.google.es/imgres?
imgurl=http://francisthemulenews.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/dibujo11mar2008elnaschie.png&imgrefurl=http://francisthemulenews.wordpress.com/2008/03/page/2/&usg=__lYk8wJmZ5WbNHQh3U0FXg4Jq6jM=&h=755&w=47
0&sz=32&hl=es&start=4&zoom=1&tbnid=0XO90X96qhS4zM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=88&ei=wkToTrH4M4P-8QPcxfj9CQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbottleneck%2Beffect%2Bisi%2Bjournals%26hl%3Des%26gbv%3D2%26tbm
%3Disch&itbs=1

4) Publish or perish. Selecting a journal to
submit my work on cooperativism.
- Growing importance of where
you publish and not just what
you publish
- Impact factors and citations

• Increasing demands to publish to get a job and to be promoted
– Professeur d'Université. (4 JCR)
– Maître de Conférence
– Attache Temporaire d’Enseignement et de Recherche
• Tutoring Phd thesis (2 JCR)
• Allocation of funds, grants and Research Projects from
government and other funding agencies to University
• Allocation of resources within a University
• Rankings of Universities.
Prestige and reputation, positive effects
on the inflow of students

Agence d’évaluation de la recherche et
de l’enseignement supérieur

ISI (Thomson Reuters) journals, a very difficult but
possible task

GLOBAL RESEARCH COMMUNITY
USES WEB OF SCIENCE
Asia-
Pacific
770
institutions
18
countries
Europe,
Middle
East and
Africa
3.656
institutions
51
countries
269
institutions
11
countries
Latin
America
967
institutions
2
countries
North
America
 5.662 Research institutions
 82 countries
Source: Philip Purnell (2011): “Thomson Reuters Research in View”. euroCRIS symposium
Brussels. September 2011.

RESEARCH EVALUATORS
USE WEB OF SCIENCE DATA
•Germany: Max Planck Society, DFG, IFQ
•France: Ministry of Research, OST - Paris, CNRS
•Austria: University of Vienna
•United Kingdom: King’s College London; HEFCE
•Russia: Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR)
•European Union: EC’s DGXII(Research Directorate)
•US: NSF: biennial Science & Engineering Indicators report (since 1974)
•People’s Republic of China: Chinese Academy of Science
•Japan: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry
•Canada: NSERC, FRSQ (Quebec), Alberta Research Council
•Australian Academy of Science, CSIRO
•University rankings agencies
Source: Philip Purnell (2011): “Thomson Reuters Research in View”.
euroCRIS symposium Brussels. September 2011.

Problems: Few European Journals in the Web of Science
(ex. Only 25 French journals in SSCI in 2011)

Problems: Zero journals on cooperatives in SSCI in 2011

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lotzman/3595748169
- Can we use the same filter for all
research fields in social sciences?
- Is the ISI filter valid for researchers
on cooperatives?

ISI (Thomson Reuters) journals, a very difficult but
possible task
Other journals publishing on cooperatives, employee participation, Mondragon….:
- AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGYIST,
- BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
- CRITIQUE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
- SOCIOLOGICAL FORUM
- JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

www.ehu.es/basterretxeaSource: Thiel, V. (2011): “SciVal: Input, Output and Outcomes”, IREG Forum: National University Rankings on the Rise Bratislava, October 11th
2011
Competitor total: 11,180 Scopus total:
18,241
Unique
Comp titles:
1,176
(6%)
Unique Scopus
titles:
8,237
(42%)
Joint titles:
10,004
(52%)
Scopus Subject Area penetration
(Scopus and competitor versus Scopus only)
Number of active journals
(Scopus versus Competitor)
100%Total Scopus journals
24%
34%
27%
15%Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Social Sciences
Health Sciences
Scopus only
Scopus and Competitor
SCOPUS Journals

5336
198
6872
189
806
1390
251
Bigger presence of European Journals
Source: Edward Wedel-Larsen (2008): SCOPUS, http://biblioteca.uv.es/intranet/formacio_usuaris/scopus/scopus.ppt

Example 2008: More presence of Journals from France,
Italy and Spain.
Number of sources indexed by Scopus compared to Thomson Journal Citation Reports
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
France Italy Spain
JCR TOTAL
Scopus
Compared to the JCR, Scopus covers on average 124% more journals
for the Big 5 European nations.
Source: Edward Wedel-Larsen (2008): SCOPUS, http://biblioteca.uv.es/intranet/formacio_usuaris/scopus/scopus.ppt

SCOPUS Journals and Book Series on Cooperativism
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1370-4788
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/books/series.htm?id=0885-3339
In SCOPUS since 2011.
http://www.ucm.es/info/revesco/
Valued in France by the AERES

Other Journals on cooperatives
CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa
Indexed in many international bases: (ECONLIT
(Economic Literature); LATINDEX; International Bibliography
of Social Sciences (IBSS); REDALyC; ULRICH'S;…)
Highly valued in Spain, and well positioned to enter ISI and/or SCOPUS
http://www.ciriec-revistaeconomia.es/
- Develop a portfolio of papers
Valued in France by the AERES (Agence d’évaluation
de la recherche et de l’enseignement supérieur)

International Journal of Co-operative Management
www.le.ac.uk/ulsm/umbo
Journal of cooperative studies

http://www.ciriec.uqam.ca/
- Journals in French
Revue Internationale de l’économie sociale

Communicating your research to a
wider public.
• Using blogs to communicate your
research
• Using slideshare to communicate your
powerpoint presentations on conferences
• Science in the open
http://www.slideshare.net/CameronNeylon/science-in-the-open

3,857,705 visits

Communicating your
findings and establishing a
dialogue with practitioners
on cooperatives
Communicating your research
to a wider public.

Research Strategies: Specialization vs
“Salami slicing” publication approach
• Research Strategy 1: Specialization on cooperatives,
and become an “expert”.
• Research Strategy 2: Comparative publication
approach and research on cooperatives vs. capital
firms.
– Get data from big samples, including cooperatives and ordinary
firms, and report findings in 2 different end publications.
• One in the general research field
• Other one in a journal on cooperatives

Research Strategy 2: Get data from big samples, including
cooperatives and ordinary firms, and report comparative
findings
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8292.2012.00467.x/pdf

Imanol Basterretxea
University of the Basque Country, Spain
Economics and Business Studies Faculty
imanol.basterretxea@ehu.es
Research on cooperatives.
Reflections on research motivations, methodology
and publishing approaches.
Université de Limoges.
Ecole doctorale "Sociétés et Organisations"
Limoges, France, 26 Janvier 2012

Research on cooperatives Research motivations, methodology and publishing approaches

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