Mapping cooperatives in Italy

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Publisher https://jssidoi.org/esc/home MAPPING COOPERATIVES IN ITALY* Andrea Cori ¹, Mattia Granata 2, Keti Lelo 3, Salvatore Monni 4 1,2 Research Institute of the Italian Cooperative Federation “Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative e Mutue - Centro Studi Legacoop”, Via Antonio Guattani 9, Rome 0164, Italy 3 Department of Economics, Roma Tre University; Via Silvio D’Amico 77, Rome 00145, Italy 4 Department of Business Studies, Roma Tre University; Via Silvio D’Amico 77, Rome 00145, Italy Received 15 November 2020; accepted 25 January 2021; published 30 March 2021 Abstract. The purpose of this contribution is to photograph and describe, with reasonable accuracy and beginning from the territorial, time and sectoral distribution, the Italian cooperative universe in all its main economic, size and qualitative variables. In the light of the economic crisis triggered by the present epidemic, the mapping work also takes on a further importance in outlining a perspective of analyses on the future impacts of the recession, on the resilience of the cooperative movement and on the role it will be able to play in counteracting the decline in industry and employment. Keywords: Cooperatives; Mapping; Italy Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Cori, A., Granata, M., Lelo, K., Monni, S. 2021. Mapping cooperatives in Italy. Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 8(3), 136-163. https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) JEL Classifications: J54, P13, Q13 1. Introduction Since the post-second world war, the academic debate has gradually confined the discussions and research on the cooperative movement to a residual space in the economic literature and in books on enterprise management (Kalmi, 2016). Moreover, up to now, the difficulty in gathering data and the fragmentary nature of the local sources (Bernardi, Treu, Tridico, 2011), as well as the lack of a clear and universally shared definition of a cooperative, have hindered the creation of a comprehensive global database that would allow for a full-scale * Financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Scientific Research Program of National Relevance (PRIN) 2017, project “Innovation for global challenges in a connected world: the role of local resources and socio-economic conditions”, is gratefully acknowledged 136 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 reading of the cooperative movement under its manifold aspects. An internationally recognised definition of a cooperative enterprise was only reached in 1995 (ICA, 1995), during the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) Centennary, after a lengthy consultation involving thousands of co-operatives from around the world. From then on, over the last decade, some important steps have been made in recognising and taking into consideration the value of the cooperative world, both at international and national level. The valuable work carried out in recent years by ICA-Euricse (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) has to be seen in this context. According to ICA data (2019a, 2019b), cooperatives now play a key role in the world’s economic system. The approximate 2,000 billion dollars in turnover generated by the top 300 cooperative enterprises in the world out of the 3 million cooperatives registered in 156 countries, in addition to the more than one billion members and 280 million employees, are important indicators of the scale of this phenomenon. In Italy, especially starting from the first decade of the century, there is no lack of important contributions in the work of mapping and measuring the Italian cooperative movement (Borzaga, 2017; Borzaga, C. Carini, C. Carpita, M., Lori, M., 2016; Borzaga, C. Calzaroni, M., Lori M., 2016; Costa, E., Carini, C., Borzaga, C., 2013; Euricse 2011, 2013, 2015; ISTAT, 2017; ISTAT-Euricse, 2019; Mazzoli, E., Zamagni, S. 2005; Zamagni S., Zamagni V. 2011, 2019; Zamagni, V. 2006). In this scenario, the purpose of this contribution is to photograph and describe, with reasonable accuracy and beginning from the territorial, time and sectoral distribution, the Italian cooperative universe in all its main economic, size and qualitative variables. In the light of the economic crisis triggered by the present epidemic, the mapping work also takes on a further importance in outlining a perspective of analyses on the future impacts of the recession, on the resilience of the cooperative movement (Berranger, C. Monni S, Realini, A., 2020; Bernardi and Monni, 2016; Bernardi and Monni, 2019; Demartini, P., Monni, S. eds., 2017; Zamagni and Zamagni, 2019; Zamagni, V., 2020; Mazzanti, M., Mazzarano, M., Pronti, A., Quatrosi, M. 2020) and on the role it will be able to play in counteracting the decline in industry and employment. The rate of survival and average lifespan of the worker buyouts carried out in Italy under a cooperative model (Demartini, P., Monni, S., 2017; Monni et al., 2017a; Monni et al., 2017b; Monni et al., 2017c; Area Studi Legacoop, 2020a; Vieta, 2015, 2016), are the proof of this, showing the economic and social success of this type of management opportunity as a response to company crises. In the opening section, the numbers and general aspects of the Italian cooperative system as a whole will be presented. Subsequently, the territorial distribution of Italian cooperatives will be analysed under the three main aspects: numbers, production and employment. In the third sub-section, the descriptive analysis will focus on the size classes of cooperative enterprises. The Italian peculiarity, the distinction between prevailing and nonprevailing mutuality (better specified in the reference sub-section), will be dealt with in the fourth sub-section. In the fifth, the new start-up and 100 year old cooperatives, the Italian cooperative enterprises will be classified on the basis of the years of activity. Finally, the numerical, productive and employment aspects of the Italian cooperatives will be redistributed on the basis of the sectors of their economic activity. 137 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 2. The aspects of the Italian cooperative world The analysis is the result of tapping into a combination of different data banks. Specifically, the economic and employment data, taken from the Aida-Bureau Van Dijk databank (2020), was integrated with the information taken from the Cooperative Register of the Ministry of Economic Development (2020) and Legacoop’s Area Studi data bank. The level of coverage for the cooperative universe does not coincide in the different sources used, both as regards the number and typology of the data. As far as the sample selection and the main classifications adopted are concerned, information can be found in the methodological note. It should be mentioned that what emerges from the analysis of the balance and employee data (Aida-Bureau Van Dijk databank, 2020) does not take into account the actual magnitude of the cooperative sector. This is due to the fact that the universe considered is limited only to enterprises that, at the time of data extraction, had presented their balances to the Chamber of Commerce. Therefore, as far as the economic and financial data is concerned, it is impossible to include, because of discrepancies in the adopted balance framework, the credit unions, the cooperative banks, the financial intermediaries, the smaller credit consortia, the credit guarantee consortia and cooperatives and the insurance companies. The total of the cooperative enterprises and consortia that we can consider active† numbers 61,274 which are quite evenly distributed across the main business sectors (Fig. 1). However, a higher representativeness can be seen in the sectors of company support services, construction and real estate, healthcare and social assistance, logistics and agriculture. † Cooperatives considered active are all those enrolled on the Company Register which, at the time of reference, did not have any insolvency procedures underway and which, except for companies set up after 1/1/2016, had lodged at least one financial balance with the Chamber of Commerce between 1/1/2017and 31/12/2019. 138 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Active cooperatives and consortia by sector (NACE Rev. 2) - % of total Information & communication Food industries service Accommodation & 3% Energy & water 4% catering services 1% Transport & 4% warehousing Commerce 10% 6% Construction & real estate 15% Agriculture 11% Other industries 4% Other public, social and personal services 6% Financial intermediaries, banks Unclassified Other company and insurance 1% support services 1% 16% Education 3% Healthcare & social assistance 15% Fig. 1. Active cooperatives and consortia by sector Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Out of the total of cooperatives considered active at the date of data elaboration, 0.3 % was not enrolled on the Cooperative Register (Fig. 2). The Italian Cooperative Register shows that more than 42 % of that enrolled fall into the Production and Worker Cooperatives group, while 26.6 % accounts for the Social Cooperatives, followed by “Other Cooperatives”, Agricultural cooperatives for production and marketing and Construction and Housing Cooperatives. 139 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Italian cooperatives by Cooperative Register categories (number and % share) Cooperative banks;19 0,0% Credit unions; 260 0,4% Cooperative consortia; 118 0,2% Agricultural coops for production& marketing; 3,874 6,3% Consumer; 976 1,6% Fishing; 954 1,6% Retailer; 98 0,2% Agriculture; 2,145 3,5% Credit guarantee consortia and coops; 242 0,4% Production and worker; 25,740 Transport; 1,079 42% 1,8% Agrarian consortia; 34 0,1% Construction & housing; 3,700 6,0% Social; 16,316 Mutual benefit societies; 4 Other cooperatives; 5,177 26,6% 0,0% 8,4% Non-enrolled on the register; 204 0,3% Missing data; 334 0,5% Fig. 2 Italian cooperatives by sector (Cooperative Register categories) Source: Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) – Italian Cooperative Register (2020) Instead, out of the total enterprises considered active, it was possible to find employment data on 53,675 cooperatives and consortia and financial balance data on 50,733 cooperatives for 2017. The lack of balance data for 2017 for a significant part of the active cooperatives can be mainly explained by the presence of 9,449 cooperatives and consortia set up from 2016 (Fig. 3) and which did not present a financial report in 2017 and, as previously mentioned, by the choice to exclude the finance, banking and insurance sectors. Nevertheless, the data available accounts for more than 83% of the active enterprises in the Italian cooperative sector (Fig. 4) and, therefore, allows for drawing the quite accurate perimeters. 140 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Number of active cooperatives and consortia by years of activity < 5 years 6,290 9,449 ≥ 5 years 30,440 ≥ 25 years 11,301 ≥ 50 years 3,225 ≥ 100 years 569 No. Active companies Start-ups not lodging balances in 2017 Fig. 3. Number of active cooperatives and consortia by years of activity Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Sample size and coverage 100% Sample size Active cooperative and consortia total 61,274 88% 83% Sample with employment data Sample with balance data 53,675 50,733 Fig. 4. Sample size and coverage Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 141 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Finally, to establish how many cooperative enterprises operate within the Italian productive and social fabric, two precise indicators were chosen on a provincial basis‡ - the economic density index (ED) and the number of workers per 1,000 residents. The ED index expresses, in numerical terms, the percentage of cooperatives in each territorial unit (province) compared to the national total of active cooperatives, while the latter renders the 1/1,000 share of workers out of the total number of residents per territorial unit. The average ED value per province, Italy-wide, is 0.93, while the median value is 0.63. From a macro-territorial viewpoint, the value revealed in the provinces of Southern Italy and the Islands, is on an average higher than those observed for the Centre-North provinces. In the southern provinces, the share of enterprises set up as cooperatives is on average 1.2 % compared to the national total, while in the centre-northern provinces, the average ED value is 0.70. The data for the more densely populated provinces – Rome, Milan and Naples – is quite comprehensible, where the cooperative ED values are well above the average. For example, the Rome province headquarters 8.6% of Italian cooperative enterprises. Where employment is concerned, on average, for every 1,000 residents, 18.6 are employed in cooperatives. 30 provinces, involving 107 second level government bodies have been considered, all situated in the Centre-North of the country and with a population of 21,974,275 inhabitants, with more than 20 employees for every 1,000 residents. From a macro-territorial point of view, the values revealed highlight a picture diametrically opposite to what emerged from the observation of the median ED values. The median value of the provinces in the CentreNorth is 22.3 (24.7 in the northern provinces) cooperative employees per 1,000 inhabitants, while in the southern and island provinces the same median coefficient drops to11.9. It can also be noted that in the Bologna and Reggio Emilia provinces, approximately 9% of inhabitants are employed in cooperatives. ‡ 100 second level government bodies (80 provinces, 14 metropolitan cities, and 6 autonomous municipal consortia in Sicily); 2 autonomous provinces in Trentino-Alto-Adige; 5 cancelled provinces in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Valle d'Aosta, are considered here for statistical and information organisation purposes. 142 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 5. Economic density of cooperative enterprises at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 143 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 6. No. employees per 1,000 inhabitants at the provincial level, 2019 Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 2.1. Italian territorial distribution Based on the financial balances and the employment data available for 2017, the Italian cooperative sector generated a total turnover§ of more than 122 billion euros, equal to 4 % of the turnover of private Italian § There is a discrepancy in the cooperative universe coverage between the sample analysed for the economic and financial analysis and the sample used for employment data gathering. The main economic and financial variables take into account 50,733 companies with data available for 2017, and do not include the credit unions and cooperative banks (279 in total), the financial intermediaries and smaller credit consortia (29 in total), the credit guarantee consortia and cooperatives (282) and the insurance companies. Employment takes into account a wider sample of 53,675 enterprises, which includes, besides the companies analysed for the economic and financial aspects, the credit 144 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 companies (ISTAT, 2017), and employs 1.18 million workers accounting for more than 7% of total employment for Italian private companies (ISTAT, 2017). Approximately 60 % of employees can be found in the cooperatives and consortia with headquarters in the northern regions, despite 66 % of the companies being, instead, distributed in the central southern and island areas (Table 1). Table 1. Regional distribution of Italian cooperatives – no. of employees (members and non-members) AREA/REGION NO. % EMPLOYEES % North West Valle d'Aosta Piedmont Lombardy Liguria 9,953 159 2,396 6,381 1,017 18.5% 0.3% 4.5% 11.9% 1.9% 308,739 1,964 80,086 203,673 23,016 26.1% 0.2% 6.8% 17.2% 1.9% North East Veneto Trentino-Alto Adige Friuli-Venezia Giulia Emilia-Romagna 8,346 2,644 1,257 737 3,708 15.5% 4.9% 2.3% 1.4% 6.9% 395,207 90,827 30,636 24,916 248,828 33.4% 7.7% 2.6% 2.1% 21.0% Centre Umbria Tuscany Marche Lazio 11,228 663 2,692 1,310 6,563 20.9% 1.2% 5.0% 2.4% 12.2% 240,077 25,253 78,645 23,758 112,421 20.3% 2.1% 6.6% 2.0% 9.5% South Apulia Molise Campania Calabria Basilicata Abruzzo 15,503 5,394 349 5,958 1,737 951 1,114 28.9% 10.0% 0.7% 11.1% 3.2% 1.8% 2.1% 158,445 63,621 3,688 52,792 14,539 7,376 16,429 13.4% 5.4% 0.3% 4.5% 1.2% 0.6% 1.4% 8,645 6,206 2,439 16.1% 11.6% 4.5% 80,476 53,502 26,974 6.8% 4.5% 2.3% 53,675 100% 1,182,944 100% The Islands Sicily Sardinia TOTAL Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Therefore, where the employment data is concerned, it is not surprising that 70% of the total turnover is generated by companies in the North of Italy (Table 2), clearly led by the North-East, and followed by Emilia-Romagna, that produced 50% of the total turnover with an average capitalisation ten times greater than that recorded for the companies in the South and the Islands. unions, the cooperative banks, the financial intermediaries, the smaller credit consortia, the credit guarantee consortia and cooperatives, the insurance companies, and 2,641enterprises where it was possible to integrate the data missing for 2017 (see methodology note). 145 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Table 2. Regional distribution of Italian cooperatives – main economic/financial balance items NO. AREA/REGION PRODUCTION VALUE 2017 AVG. PRODUCTION OPERATING VALUE INCOME 2017 COMPANY CAPITAL 2017 AVG. CAPITAL NET WORTH 2017 North West Valle d'Aosta Piedmont Lombardia Liguria 9,419 155 2,289 5,990 985 26,634,820,836 121,529,583 7,334,205,759 17,362,427,166 1,816,658,328 2,827,776 784,062 3,204,109 2,898,569 1,844,323 83,867,763 1,003,585 66,519,255 58,686,913 -42,341,990 778,389,382 7,023,293 206,912,324 517,173,275 47,280,490 82,640 45,312 90,394 86,339 48,000 6,857,202,118 53,420,905 2,248,136,306 3,746,960,162 808,684,745 North East Veneto Trentino-Alto Adige Friuli-Venezia Giulia Emilia-Romagna 7,876 2,473 1,158 710 3,535 59,053,044,347 9,688,874,636 6,186,829,029 1,619,740,810 41,557,599,872 7,497,847 3,917,863 5,342,685 2,281,325 11,756,040 366,059,967 53,657,145 63,155,202 19,780,139 229,467,481 2,012,728,404 279,700,818 240,765,631 62,107,830 1,430,154,125 255,552 113,102 207,915 87,476 404,570 16,119,580,544 1,586,764,450 2,115,456,926 347,727,532 12,069,631,636 Centre Umbria Tuscany Marche Lazio 10,580 621 2,579 1,225 6,155 22,014,041,480 5,537,375,448 7,910,320,459 2,985,242,737 5,581,102,836 2,080,722 8,916,869 3,067,205 2,436,933 906,759 141,057,707 87,543,208 1,792,894 31,622,620 20,098,985 762,052,209 123,777,612 299,623,831 120,022,331 218,628,435 72,028 199,320 116,178 97,977 35,520 4,355,045,531 1,262,018,108 2,901,168,356 611,165,321 -419,306,254 South Apulia Molise Campania Calabria Basilicata Abruzzo 14,694 5,128 338 5,658 1,639 901 1,030 9,337,448,461 3,162,229,266 202,522,709 3,312,265,007 799,134,600 596,629,663 1,264,667,216 635,460 616,659 599,180 585,413 487,574 662,186 1,227,832 47,052,131 12,599,751 627,517 29,526,795 3,703,974 1,596,265 -1,002,171 309,836,078 92,182,634 7,806,748 72,540,055 20,804,007 20,488,663 96,013,971 21,086 17,976 23,097 12,821 12,693 22,740 93,217 1,592,814,864 523,431,780 30,194,285 520,827,396 134,959,388 118,267,665 265,134,350 8,164 5,901 2,263 50,733 5,217,468,048 3,629,449,396 1,588,018,652 122,256,823,172 639,082 615,057 701,732 2,409,809 -1,494,489 11,061,314 -12,555,803 636,543,079 217,036,005 140,532,640 76,503,365 4,080,042,078 26,585 23,815 33,806 80,422 944,180,692 589,399,929 354,780,763 29,868,823,749 The Islands Sicily Sardinia TOTAL Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) On a provincial level, the companies with headquarters in the Bologna province generated approximately 17% (€ 22 bn.) of Italian cooperative turnover and more than 50% of that generated by companies with headquarters in the Emilia-Romagna region. Other than Bologna, the other provinces registering a total turnover of more than 5 billion euros can be found in the Centre-North and, in order of turnover generated, Milan, Forlì-Cesena, Perugia and Reggio Emilia. 146 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 7. Production value at the provincial level, 2017 (bn. Euro) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 2.3. The size classes As previously mentioned in the EURICSE updated third report on the cooperative economy (Euricse. 2015), 57 % of the more than 122 bn. in total production value of Italian cooperatives can be attributed to 242 companies with a turnover of more than 50 million euros (Table 3), while almost 90 % has a production value of less than 2 million resulting in a yearly loss of 20 million euros and11 % of total turnover. 147 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Table 1. Numbers, production value and operating income of Italian cooperatives by turnover class TURNOVER CLASS NO. % % OPERATING INCOME 2017 % PRODUCTION VALUE 2017 ≤ 2 mln ≤ 10 mln ≤ 50 mln > 50 mln 44,921 4,567 1,004 241 89% 9% 2% 0% 13,792,433,162 19,431,996,384 19,401,042,377 69,631,351,249 11% 16% 16% 57% - 19,776,433 105,840,151 118,376,707 432,102,654 -3% 17% 19% 68% TOTAL 50,733 100% 122,256,823,172 100% 636,543,079 100% Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) According to the parameters currently used by the institutions and found in the European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/Ce of 6 May 2003, almost all cooperatives are classified as SMEs, while large cooperatives number only 116. The latter are all situtated in 43 (40%) of the 107 second level government units considered. Only 5 large companies have registered their head offices in the South. Specifically, 46 % of the total of large cooperatives is to be found in Emilia Romagna and16 % in the Bologna province. As can clearly be seen in the map below, the provinces where there are the highest number of large companies out of the total number of cooperatives per province** are almost all exclusively located in the North – specifically, in Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Piedmont. The Vercelli province registers the highest density of large-sized companies (2.2 %) which account for 93 % of total turnover of the province and employ 83 % of the workforce. ** There is a discrepancy in the cooperative universe coverage between the sample analysed for the economic and financial analysis and the sample used for employment data gathering. The main economic and financial variables take into account 50,733 companies with data available for 2017, and do not include the credit unions and cooperative banks (279 in total), the financial intermediaries and smaller credit consortia (29 in total), the credit guarantee consortia and cooperatives (282) and the insurance companies. Employment takes into account a wider sample of 53,675 enterprises, which includes, besides the companies analysed for the economic and financial aspects, the credit unions, the cooperative banks, the financial intermediaries, the smaller credit consortia, the credit guarantee consortia and cooperatives, the insurance companies, and 2,641enterprises where it was possible to integrate the data missing for 2017 (see methodology note). 148 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 8. Share of large companies out of cooperative companies total at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) The large cooperatives account for, on an average in the relative provinces, 39 % of total turnover and 29 % of employment registered with the different local government bodies. The incidence rates for turnover†† and number of employees‡‡ broadly reflect what was previously observed in terms of quantitative importance. The large cooperatives accounting for more than 60 % of total local turnover are found in 11 provinces out of the 43 where these cooperatives have their registered head offices. While in only 4 of †† The share of turnover generated by large cooperatives by province was calculated on the total turnover produced by the sample made up of 50,733 active companies with balance data. ‡‡ The share of large cooperative employees by province was calculated on the total of employees from the sample made up of 50,733 active companies with balance data. 149 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 these - Vercelli, Novara, Bologna and Reggio Emilia – the large cooperatives account for more than 60 % of the number of local cooperative employees. Fig. 9. Turnover share of large companies out of total cooperative turnover at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 150 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 10. Employee share of large companies out of total cooperative employees at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 2.4. Mutually prevalent cooperatives§§ Out of all the active cooperatives and consortia whose financial balance data is available, 93 % are enrolled on the Cooperative Register of the Ministry of Economic Development under the section of mutually prevalent §§ Italian Law nr. 366, 2001, introduced the so-called mutually prevalent cooperatives, which have the key features of a limited profit distribution and indivisible capital reserves. Regarding their mutual exchange, mutually prevalent cooperatives (art. 2512 Italian civil code) primarly conduct their activity in favour of members and/or consumers or users of goods or services primarly relying on the work of their members to carry out their activities. The criteria for determining whether a cooperative is mutually prevalent or not are contained within the Civil Code, which also fixes statutory limitations theymust adopt (art. 2513, 2514 Italian civil code). Instead, social cooperatives are considered mutually prevalent by law (Bruni and Zamagni, 2009). 151 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 cooperatives (Table 4). Approximately 5 % of the cooperative total do not meet the prerequisites to be mutually prevalent, while 0.3 % of the sample are not on the register. Table 4. Level of mutualistic exchange COOPERATIVE REGISTER SECTION EMPLOYEES NO. % PRODUCTION VALUE 2017 OPERATING INCOME 2017 COMPANY CAPITAL 2017 NET WORTH 2017 MUTUALLY 47,259 93.2% 1,058,086 113,681,356,723 3,802,873,456 567,594,288 29,141,850,887 2,602 5.1% 36,827 5,810,361,342 223,248,073 70,087,384 1,798,024,230 SOCIETIES 1 0.0% 0 214,337 6,770 1,042 8,051 MISSING DATA 2 0.0% 36 1,694,244 26,100 19,743 78,248 TYPOLOGIES 697 1.4% 4,420 503,526,303 45,631,223 -1,157,576 -1,084,436,216 NOT PRESENT 172 0.3% 1,181 2,259,670,223 8,256,456 -1,802 13,298,549 50,733 100% PREVALENT NONMUTUALLY PREVALENT MUTUAL BENEFIT OTHER TOTAL 1,100,550 122,256,823,172 4,080,042,078 636,543,079 29,868,823,749 Source: Our elaboration on data from Aida and the Ministry of Economic Development – Italian Cooperative Register (2020) With the exclusion of the cooperatives not enrolled on the register, regarding the other typologies and the mutual benefit societies, on a provincial basis we can see the percentage of enterprises that display the prevalence requisites. On an average, in the southern and island provinces we find higher values, with 96.6 % of mutually prevalent cooperatives, while in the Centre-North the average percentage of those mutually prevalent is 92.5 %. In general, in 21 % of the Italian provinces, the share of mutually prevalent cooperatives is more than 97 %. The highest percentage of non-mutually prevalent cooperatives can be found among the Lombardy provinces, at 10.5 %. At the same time, in the provinces of Belluno and Sondrio, there is the highest percentage of non-mutually prevalent cooperatives, at 26.9 % and 20.1 %, respectively. 152 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 11. Share of mutually prevalent companies at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Ministry of Economic Development data – Italian Cooperative Register (2020) 153 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 2.5. The new start-up and 100 year old cooperatives In Table 5, one of the principles underpinning the cooperative movement is revealed - that is, the principle of inter-generationality (Area Studi Legacoop, 2020b). The table shows that 7 % of enterprises have been active for more than 50 years, generating about 32 % of the production value. Instead, the highest number of companies are found in the groups with life spans of between 5 and 25 years. Cooperatives in the sample lasting more than 100 years, number 568 and, of these, 448 register a balance with a turnover of more than 7 billion euros. Table 5. Numbers, employment and production value for years of activity YEARS IN ACTIVITY ≥ 100 ≥ 50 ≥ 25 ≥5 <5 TOTAL NO. % EMPLOYEES % PRODUCTION VALUE 2017 448 3,079 10,922 29,994 6,290 50,733 1% 6% 22% 59% 12% 100% 21,474 112,794 427,975 483,036 55,271 1,100,550 2% 10% 39% 44% 5% 100% 7,375,826,335 31,671,188,835 38,679,214,299 41,489,889,962 3,040,703,741 122,256,823,172 % 6% 26% 32% 34% 2% 100% Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Most of the cooperatives with a lifespan of more than 100 years are situated in the north of the country, especially in Lombardy and Trentino. The map below shows the share of 100+ year-old enterprises out of the total of companies in the relevant province. There is a higher density of 100+ year-old companies in the provinces of Trento, Belluno, Varese, Sondrio and Como. In Trento, the 100+ year-old companies number 81 out of the total of 568, while in the South there are 31, 19 being found in the Islands***. *** The share of 100+ year-old companies is calculated on the total of the sample, also including the cooperatives whose 2017-2018 balances are unavailable. 154 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 12. Company share of 100+ year-olds out of the cooperative companies total at the provincial level, 2017 (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Instead, the distribution of the cooperatives set up from 2016 is relatively balanced between the Centre-North (53%) and the South (47%), albeit, in this case, the southern and island provinces register a higher density of new cooperatives (Area Studi Legacoop, 2020c). New cooperatives number 15,739 (Fig. 3†††), 6,290 with balance data. The provinces with the highest number of cooperatives set up beginning from 2016 are Rome, followed by Milan, Naples and Salerno. Instead, the provinces of Benevento, Trapani, Sassari and Milan record the highest share of new cooperatives out of the cooperative total per province. For example, in Benevento province the percentage of new cooperatives amounts to 39 % of the total, while in the provinces of Lecco, Trento, Sondrio, Gorizia and Belluno, the share is less than 10%. Instead, in the Rome province, where the highest number of cooperatives is registered, the total of new cooperatives is 34 %. ††† The share of new cooperatives is calculated on the sample total, also including those where the 2017-2018 balance data is unavailable. 155 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Fig. 13. Share of cooperatives set up in 2016 at the provincial level (%) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) 2.6. The Italian cooperative sectors The sectoral analysis (Table 6) is based on the NACE Rev. 2 code groupings communicated to the Chamber of Commerce by the companies and available on the Aida databank. Consistent with the last report on the cooperative economy drawn up by EURISCE (2017), a distinction was made between the manufacturing industry and the food industry, in order to bring to light a key characteristic of Italian cooperative production. 156 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Table 6. Sector distribution of Italian cooperatives NO. EMPLOYEES PRODUCTION VALUE 2017 (K. EUR) Agriculture 5,902 61,328 14,929,643 52,202 627,365 3,114,506 Food industry 1,344 46,570 15,734,731 77,566 629,522 2,974,116 Other industries 1,962 29,747 3,893,969 87,702 177,604 1,809,535 Energy & water 448 11,285 1,000,936 25,758 73,399 503,924 Construction & real estate 8,000 29,725 6,321,775 -112,756 362,234 4,446,305 Commerce 3,352 86,836 44,272,676 231,853 783,646 10,016,513 Transport & warehousing 4,816 162,609 9,016,582 -24,179 247,752 729,469 Accommodation & catering 2,005 51,747 2,360,795 12,636 125,234 567,551 Communications/information services 1,900 15,581 864,837 5,411 65,359 241,042 Other company support services 7,969 226,260 10,750,600 96,333 463,837 2,623,998 Education 1,858 22,295 810,755 8,926 32,973 150,130 Healthcare & social assistance 8,118 313,978 11,000,630 171,902 413,192 2,385,913 Other public, social, personal services 3,055 42,587 1,298,889 3,192 77,919 305,791 4 2 6 -3 6 31 50,733 1,100,550 122,256,823 636,543 4,080,042 29,868,824 SECTOR Unclassified TOTAL OPERATING INCOME2017 (K. EUR) COMPANY CAPITAL2017 (K. EUR) NET WORTH 2017 (K. EUR) Source: Our elaboration on Aida-Bureau Van Dijk data (2020) Among the leading sectors we find commerce, with a sample representation of 9%, and generating 36 % of total turnover and profits, capitalising 34 % of resources. The healthcare and social assistance sector, the most representative in terms of numbers, employs 29 % of total workers. However, company capital is mainly concentrated in the commerce, agriculture and food industry sectors. The ratio between employees and company capital in the different sectors shows that the most labour intensive sectors are healthcare and social assistance, education, and transport and warehousing. In general, it can be confirmed that approximately 60% of the active 157 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 cooperatives, with balance data available, is concentrated in the sectors of construction and real estate, company support services, healthcare and social assistance and agriculture. 3. Conclusions This paper which, as mentioned in the introduction, emerged from the objective to outline and analyse the major aspects of the Italian cooperative movement referring to the most authoritative databanks available, has also taken on a further meaning in light of the current situation arising from the Covid-19 emergency. The original intent was to photograph the final situation of what has occurred over the last decade beginning from 2007-2008, however, with the emergence of this new and still dramatic crisis, it will become the springboard for an analysis on the future impacts of which, today, we can only vaguely divine the consequences. In the weeks of the lockdown, the cooperative associations confronted the emergency prioritising job security, guaranteeing the survival of the cooperatives (liquidity, financial reorganisation support, maintaining services and product orders, cost-cutting, and so on) and defending jobs. At the same time, it began a constant monitoring of the immediate repercussions of the legislative measures that froze entire sectors with still unquantifiable consequences and, as well, of the rapid evolution, at the moment full of uncertainties, of the relevant sector and market conditions which, in all likelihood, will require a thorough restructuring. From the very start, an important compass was the certainty, quite widely shared, that the imminent crisis – that will soon unfold the economic, as well as social and political consequences – must push the economic actors, among others, to question themselves about the underlying choices and meaning of their actions where the market is concerned. The cooperative associations along with all the institutional bodies have pointed out the need to restart, but with the aim to build a different economy, where individuals, the common good, wellbeing, the health of citizens and the safety of our planet, must always come before individual interests. Otherwise, after this crisis, we will end up with a fragile and vulnerable world. Undoubtedly, the different aspects of the Italian cooperative experience outlined here are a force on which future actions can be hinged. However, it requires a full awareness of the features of the cooperative entrepreneurial base, as well as appropriate key preparations that take into account the changing context of today. Italian cooperation emerged from the decade of the crisis seeing some historical strong points consolidated, such as widespread sector presence, inter-generational solidarity, an instinct for resilience and especially safeguarding employment, and a capability to adapt and regenerate before social and market changes. On the other hand, the decade of the great crisis also exacerbated some shadowy areas. These include, for example, a tendency towards territorial, sectoral and size concentrations in traditional comfort zones; a decrease in numbers that, although being compensated for by the setting up of new companies, also confirmed some weaknesses in the model, overall among the micro and small cooperatives; and a difficulty to adapt to the democratic workings of companies in a context of rapid evolution. Nevertheless, even throughout the contentious situation of the past decade, while entire sectors were undergoing restructuring, at times being drastically reduced, the Italian cooperatives also revealed themselves to be resourceful and energetic in renewing themselves, coming up with new needs, trends, experiences, new market responses and solutions in an associative, democratic and cooperative form. 158 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 This is certainly the case for the WBOs where the Italian experience has provided an original contribution to existing practices at an international level, as well as for the community cooperatives. They provide a new response for the many different needs that challenge the idea itself of mutualistic exchange and how it has been shaped and dealt with over decades of cooperative theory and practice, innovatively interpreting the need to manage public goods, also through a widespread reallocation of ownership rights. The crisis resulted in being a catalyst for change and, moreover, in recent years has generated productive cross-sectoral collaborations where the objective of inclusion, often through turning to new technologies to come up with new products or services, has led to practices in economic, social and cultural innovation whose transformative force we will increasingly see the results of in the coming years. Of course, many of these innovations, because they are so widespread, spontaneous and experimental, also display characteristics of entrepreneurial fragility, albeit in the light of a large-scale added value. One of the essential aspects of the future cooperative development strategies will be in knowing how to find, recognise, shape and sustain the sprouting seeds of these innovative practices. After all, accumulating and reproducing knowledge and entrepreneurial capability, especially if inspired by cooperative values, and linked to local communities and areas, are per se a “common good” (Berranger, Monni, Realini, 2020; Giovannetti, E: (2001)) to be cultivated and preserved with care. 4. Methodological Note As of 20/01/2020,146,396 cooperative, cooperative consortia and cooperative consortium company enterprises were present in the Aida databank. 85,597 of these were active, numbering 84,944 cooperatives and 653 consortia and cooperative consortium companies. From the 85,597 active enterprises, all those set up before 11/1/2016 and not lodging a balance with the Chamber of Commerce from 31/12/2016 were then eliminated. An analysis then followed of the consolidated balances that brought the total of eliminated companies from the sample to 195. Resulting from the provisions taken in selecting the sample, the total of cooperative companies and consortia that can be considered active is made up of 61,274 enterprises. Therefore, out of the total of those enterprises considered active, according to what was previously presented, there are 53,675 cooperatives and consortia for which it was possible to obtain data on employment. For 3,048 enterprises, the missing data for the number of employees at 31/12/2017 was integrated with the manual entry of the data from the balance, with the data from cooperative audit minutes in the Area Studi Legacoop databank or, alternatively, with the corresponding data at 31/12/2018. Instead, as far as the main economic aspects are concerned, due to the impossibility to compare the balance data, the credit unions and cooperative banks (279), the financial intermediaries and the smaller credit consortia (29), the credit guarantee cooperatives and consortia (282) and the insurance companies‡‡‡ (4) were excluded from the sample. ‡‡‡ The credit unions and cooperative banks (279), the financial intermediaries, the smaller credit companies, the credit guarantee cooperatives and consortia (287) and the insurance companies, were identified based on the information provided by the cooperative register, the financial intermediary register of the Bank of Italy, and on the balance classification data from the Aida-Bureau Van Dijk databank (those identified were companies which draw up a balance according to that foreseen in the civil code for banks, financial intermediaries and insurance companies). 159 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 References AREA STUDI LEGACOOP (2020a) Le imprese recuperate in Italia. content/uploads/2020/03/Nota-8-WBO_Le-imprese-recuperate-in-Italia.pdf. 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Acknowledgements Financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research, Scientific Research Program of National Relevance (PRIN) 2017, project “Innovation for global challenges in a connected world: the role of local resources and socio-economic conditions”, is gratefully acknowledged. 162 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES ISSN 2345-0282 (online) https://jssidoi.org/jesi/ 2021 Volume 8 Number 3 (March) https://doi.org/10.9770/jesi.2021.8.3(8) Make your research more visible, join the Twitter account of ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES: @Entrepr69728810 Andrea CORI is a researcher for the Research Centre of the Italian Cooperative Federation, –"Legacoop". He graduated from Università di Roma Tre with a post-graduated diploma in Economics, Law and Management in Co-operative Companies. Previously, Andrea had done a Masters in Economics and Management from the Università di Roma Tre – along with a Bachelor in Philosophy from Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”. His current research and publications are in the fields of Development Economics, Social Economy and Cooperatives, Latin American Studies and Sustainable Water Management. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3190-4726 Mattia GRANATA (PhD), an historian by training, is the Head of the Research Centre of the Italian Cooperative Federation Legacoop, and the Director of the Ivano Barberini Foundation (Bologna). He teaches Labour History at the University of Milan. He authored a number of books and articles about Italian economic and political history. He published Smart Milan. Innovation from Expo to Expo (1906-2015) (Springer 2016) and is currently writing a book on the OECD and educational policies in postwar Europe. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0639-4632 Keti LELO is Assistant Professor in Economic History at Roma Tre University, Department of Business Studies, where she lectures on Urban and Regional Analysis, Quantitative Methods Lab and Urban History. She is a member of the scientific committee of the Master’s Programme “Management, promotion, technological innovation for the cultural heritage”, where she coordinates the module “Knowledge of Heritage”. She is the author of numerous scientific articles in the fields of urban planning, territorial analysis, geographic information systems and geostatistics. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2009-3772 Salvatore MONNI is Associate Professor of Economic Policy and Director of the Master’s Programme in "The Cooperative Company: Economics, Law and Management", at Roma Tre University, Department of Economics. His current main research and publications are in the fields of development economics and policy. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6326-5714 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 163