Literature Review
There have been extant literatures exploring the historical roots of
cooperatives (Molina, 2012; Birchall, 2013), measuring their
performances (McKee, 2008; Maroua, 2015), evaluating their weaknesses
(Cabo & Rebelo, 2012), suggesting control mechanisms (Aras & Crowther,
2008), and pointing out their challenges (Flecha & Ngai, 2014; Tkacz,
et al., 2015; Ramanauskas, et al., 2017). These literatures shed light
on the nature, structure and operational aspects of cooperatives in
general. However, there have been theoretical gaps in terms of
explaining the philosophical constructs of cooperativism. These
philosophical constructs are relevant in the cooperative’s operation and
it could influence their success or failure.
In the Philippines, there have been few published literatures covering
cooperatives and they are mostly limited to reports from the Cooperative
Development Authority (CDA) and from unpublished theses and
dissertations. Similar with other countries, researches have focused on
historical roots (Quilloy, 2015), financial performance (Nabua, et al.,
2013), impact of cooperatives (Tomaquin, 2014), cooperative challenges
(Sam & Sam, 2013), and structure of cooperatives (Teodosio, 2009).
There are theoretical gaps in terms of exploring the philosophical
construct of cooperativism that may bring significant impact on the
operation of cooperatives. For instance, the struggle for growth could
be due to the member’s lack of understanding of collectivism and the
elected officers’ inability to abide with the collective goals and
aspirations. Example, the growth of cooperatives could be due to the
member’s lack of support on the cooperative’s business and lack of
commitment to the collective. Additionally, the elected officers may
lack genuine collectivist behavior which hinders them to pursue the
collective’s interest. In fact, there were unsuccessful cooperatives
that have been into dissolution, liquidation, cancellation and delisting
which could depict the real challenges that could have been rooted from
the members’ failure to recognize the importance of collectivism. As a
result, the study delves into establishing the theoretical framework in
order to analyze the nature of cooperatives and establish the connection
of collectivism as a philosophy in the cooperative movements’
consciousness.