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covering cooperatives and they are mostly limited to reports from the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and from unpublished theses and dissertations.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.