A Path-Dependence Analysis of Italian Social and Community Cooperatives

In Italy, cooperatives emerged as a key vehicle for solving problems. As these problems evolved, so did the cooperative identity. Path-dependence analysis is a methodological approach that seeks to explain discontinuous processes by means of notions like inertia, incorporating both contingent and reactive processes and events. A literature based on organizational path dependence is drawn on to analyze how an interaction between institutional and legal processes generated an inertial pull towards “cooperativizing” sectors of the Italian economy, in particular, with reference to the emergence of a distinct species of multi-stakeholder enterprises with both regenerative, integrative and federative dimensions. The article follows Bennison (2024) in adapting Schreyögg, Sydow, and Holtmann (2011)’s organizational path dependence analysis to interpret the evolution of a diverse ecosystem of multi-stakeholder cooperatives in Italy. By simplifying the analysis to a number of key historical episodes and events, it attempts to demonstrate the importance of non-linear processes of inertia and reinforcement in contributing to a regime’s organizational evolution. Different from the existing literature, the article argues that path-dependent processes do not always result in a deterministic “lock-in”, but can also facilitate open-ended outcomes. A broader goal is to show how the innovative type of stakeholder management adopted by multi-stakeholder cooperatives achieves economic, organizational and entrepreneurial outcomes beyond merely solving agency problems, by so doing providing a template for other countries and regions seeking robust strategies for dealing with various dimensions of the contemporary pluri-crisis.