"It-could-work!" Multistakeholder governance mechanisms for firms' regeneration: An opportunity for SMEs in times of crisis

This study addresses workers buyouts as a form of governance suitable for designing and implementing solutions to business crises from a socially responsible and multistakeholder perspective. In recent years, there have been repeated phases of economic crisis that have led to increased business crises, resulting in great damage to society as a whole as well as the real lives of the people involved. Business crises affect managers and employees working at firms in crisis, which in turn impacts their families. Using a single case study approach, this research focuses on the governance changes leading to a workers buyout and the formation of a cooperative firm. It explores in depth the conditions that enable the start-up of a workers buyout and the critical issues faced by the new form of governance. In particular, the study focuses on how external stakeholders can play a crucial role in a firm’s entrepreneurial relaunch. The findings show that the experience of a workers buyout can represent a meaningful model for relaunching on a new entrepreneurial path that offers new opportunities to a firm, its managers and its workers from a multistakeholder and sustainable perspective.