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

http://www.ehu.es/basterretxea


Researching on cooperatives1 ) 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 3IDENTIFICATION OF THE ACTORS OR GROUPS INCLUDED IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY CONCEPT

3. Identification of the actors or groups included in the Social Economy concept3.1. 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-operativesB. Mutual societies

C. Social economy business groupsD. 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.

http://www.mondragon-corporation.com/CAS/Cooperativismo/Experiencia-cooperativa/Publicaciones/TU-Lankide.aspx



• 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.

http://socek.se/ciriec_research_2009


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


4) Publish or perish. Selecting a journal 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=470&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



- Growing importance of where you publish and not just what you publish

- Impact factors and citations

http://www.scopus.com/scopus/home.url



• 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

http://www.aeres-evaluation.fr/










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


GLOBAL RESEARCH COMMUNITYUSES WEB OF SCIENCE

Asia-

Pacific

770 insti

tutions

18 countri

esEurope,

Middle

East and

Africa

3.656 insti

tutions

51 countri

es

269 insti

tutions

11 countri

es

Latin

America

967 insti

tutions

2 countri

es

North

America

5.662 Research institutions 82 countries

Source: Philip Purnell (2011): “Thomson Reuters Research in View”. euroCRIS symposium Brussels. September 2011.


RESEARCH EVALUATORSUSE 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?


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

http://wes.sagepub.com/content/current

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ilrreview/subscribe.html


Source: 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 SCOPUShttp://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 Managementwww.le.ac.uk/ulsm/umbo

Journal of cooperative studies


http://www.co-opstudies.org/Journal.htm



http://www.ciriec.uqam.ca/

- Journals in French

Revue Internationale de l’économie sociale

http://recma.org/


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 BasterretxeaUniversity of the Basque Country, Spain

Economics and Business Studies Faculty

[email protected]


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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