Processi di vita delle imprese cooperative

The cooperative enterprises in the Province of Modena are ‘long life’ economic species. This characteristic is more marked, as their ability in developing a network interactions increases. These results are compatible with other studies — theoretical and empirical — which attribute to the cooperative enterprise the the highest probability of survival compared to other firms. Unfortunately, the longevity of the enterprises is not a unequivocal indicator of economic efficiency. On the contrary, the relationship between the concept (historical) of “longevity” and the standard concept (a-temporal) of efficiency in the economic theory, is not only ambiguous, but also contradictory on the epistemological level.This paper uses an institutional perspective in its attempts to identify a connecting path from the traditional to the evolutionary-historical point of view. It is in this framework that the implications of the definition of economic efficiency of the cooperative enterprise are discussed. The key-concept examined is that of transaction costs as the costs of altering the division of labour. In such a theoretical perspective, the cooperative enterprise appears as both a individual firm and as aggregate movement of firms, that is a network of firm relationships, which— focus on economising on such costs. In fact, during its history, particularly in case of the Modena experience, the cooperative movement has deeply reduced the number and the cost of many transactions in the economic system. It has done this by transferring information between firms and agents; creating a quality standard; reducing search costs in the goods and labour markets. It also generated new contractual relationships/institutions; contributed to developing a culture of the training and public administration. Overall cooperatives like enterprises profited from reduction of such costs, which are often present in other areas and economic contexts. The present paper finds that these all of these factors tend to indicate an evolutionarily, efficient path of development; and are the principal reasons for the greater longevity of this enterprise form.The data, appropriately updated and adjusted, used in the paper are from the files on cooperative enterprises of the Ufficio Provinciale del Lavoro (Provincial Labour Agency). These files contain detailed information on 2760 cooperative enterprises (birth date, number of members, sector of activity, exit date, ecc.). The multivariate and other statistical analysis on firm mortality do not reject our basic hypotheses.