Platform Cooperativism Consortium
Platform cooperatives make possible a more democratic digital economy. They offer an alternative to extractive “platform capitalism,” one based on cooperative principles such as democratic ownership and governance.
More Than a Company: Leading in a Values-Based Ecosystem
Studies show that when people are intrinsically motivated and engaged in a healthy environment, innovation and productivity thrive―yet many business leaders stick with “command and control” organizational structures, using extrinsic reward frameworks that fail to inspire others. How can we do better? We believe the solution starts with values-based individuals dedicated to improving the lives … Read More
Introducing CLEO—the Rutgers Online Employee Ownership Library: What Business Owners Can Learn
The redesigned Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership (CLEO), the online library dedicated to employee share ownership, features more than 600 resources—including company case studies, links to scholarly research articles, informative videos, and policy reports. This webinar introduces this free online library and highlights resources of interest to business owners who are considering employee ownership. Research … Read More
Common Wealth Dividends: History and Theory
Common wealth dividends are universal cash payments funded by fees on the private use of common resources like land, minerals, and the atmosphere as a carbon sink. Thomas Paine’s 1797 pamphlet Agrarian Justice and Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend are staples in the literature on Basic Income, but there is much more to common wealth dividends … Read More
Race and Gender Wealth Equity and the Role of Employee Share Ownership
Even before the pandemic, many workers struggled to build wealth. Divisions between men and women, and between white households and households of color, are particularly striking. The pandemic has exacerbated and heightened awareness of these inequities, and there is a mounting sense of urgency to find practical solutions. Increasing participation in business ownership can help … Read More
How Economic Democracy Impacts Workers, Firms, and Communities
This paper presents findings from a national survey of 1,147 workers in worker cooperatives and follow up interviews with 15 participants conducted in 2017.
Neo-Abolitionism: Abolishing Human Rentals in Favor of Workplace Democracy
This book argues for the abolition of the current employment system in favor of workplace democracy. The abolition of slavery abolished not only the involuntary ownership of other people (workers) but also voluntary contractual forms of lifetime servitude. That system of lifetime servitude was replaced however by the current system of voluntary renting, hiring, employing, … Read More
The 7 Cooperative Principles: An Interactive Course for Cooperative Members
This interactive course introduces the seven cooperative principles: voluntary and open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy and independence; education, training and information; cooperation among cooperatives; and concern for community.
Becoming Employee Owned: A Small Business Toolkit Website
Becoming Employee Owned is an initiative of the Democracy at Work Institute, a movement-based think-and-do tank supporting worker cooperatives to grow to a scale that creates meaningful change in the economy. The website includes resources for small businesses and company profiles.
A Visual Guide to Employee Ownership
The “A Visual Guide to Employee Ownership” website is an initiative of the National Center for Employee Ownership. It includes infographics, videos, a map of ESOPs in the United States, and other accessible but impactful visual guides.
Why Aren’t There More? Assessing Barriers to ESOP Creation
This study by Jared Bernstein looks at why there are not more ESOPs and considers how to address potential barriers to entry. Drawing on a survey of 250 non-ESOP business owners and leaders, as well as interviews with business owners of employee-owned companies, it argues that education and awareness about the ESOP structure is key.
The National Center for Employee Ownership YouTube Channel
The National Center for Employee Ownership YouTube Channel includes webinars and videos on a variety of topics related to employee ownership. NCEO is a nonprofit organization that has been supporting the employee ownership community since 1981. Its mission is to help employee ownership thrive.
Employee Ownership Expansion Network YouTube Channel
The Employee Ownership Expansion Network YouTube Channel includes informative short videos about employee ownership. EOX is a national nonprofit focused on significantly expanding employee ownership across the United States by establishing and supporting a network of independent nonprofit State Centers for Employee Ownership.
Who Should Own Your Business After You? A Guide for Business Owners
This booklet helps business owners evaluate employee ownership. Thousands of business owners have decided that employee ownership is the best way to preserve the job security of their workforces and protect the character of their companies while providing them and their families fair value. In “Who Should Own Your Business After You?,” several of them … Read More
Employee Ownership and Industrial Innovation: Huawei in the U.S.-China Technology Rivalry
Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunication technology giant that was put into the U.S. government’s Entity List from May 2019, has become a contested issue in the emerging U.S.-China technology rivalry. In particular, the U.S. government and Western academics have viewed Huawei’s unique employee ownership as an opaque structure subject to the influence of the Chinese … Read More
Creating Mutual Gains to Leverage a Racially Diverse Workforce: The Effects of Firm-Level Racial Diversity on Financial and Workforce Outcomes Under the Use of Broad-Based Stock Options
Despite substantial scholarly attention to workforce demographic diversity, existing research is limited in understanding whether or in what contexts firm-level racial diversity relates to performance and workforce outcomes of the firm. Drawing on social interdependence theory along with insights from social exchange and psychological ownership theories, we propose that the use of broad-based stock options … Read More
Employee-Owned Firms in the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Majority-Owned ESOP & Other Companies Have Responded to the Covid-19 Health and Economic Crises
This significant new study shows that majority employee-owned companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) are outperforming non-employee owned companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in the areas of job retention, pay, benefits, and workplace health safety. The study reveals that ESOPs have been more proactive about ensuring the safety of employees during the pandemic and … Read More
Policy Strategies to Build a More Inclusive Economy with Cooperatives
This report describes the role cooperatives can play in building healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities, and explains how to advance that work through federal, state, and local policy. The policy objectives presented are intended not to simply grow the field of cooperatives, but to enhance the work of cooperatives that address economic and racial disparities … Read More
Teaching Employee Share Ownership
In this workshop, “Research and Teaching about Equity Compensation, Employee Share Ownership and Profit Sharing in Organizations,” expert professors describe a variety of different ways they teach about employee ownership and equity compensation in their university courses–and the resources, videos, and case studies that they use. This workshop features Daphne Berry, Joseph Blasi, and Ed … Read More
Race, Equity and the Transformative Power of Employee Ownership: A Conversation with Todd Leverette
This interview with Todd Leverette explores how employee ownership could address the racial wealth gap and benefit Black and brown communities. “Employee ownership gives Black and brown workers the ability to both build wealth and improve the quality of their jobs through actually having a voice in not just their day-to-day activities but in the … Read More
Datasets on Employee Ownership Available to the Public
This is a list of datasets, all accessible to researchers, that enable the study of employee ownership.
The Sociology of Worker Ownership: New Data Sets and Research Approaches
In this video workshop, “The Sociology of Worker Ownership: New Data Sets and Research Approaches,” leading researchers introduce datasets that enable the study of worker ownership. The workshop opens with comments from Joyce Rothschild and Joseph Blasi, and is moderated by Adria Scharf. Janet Boguslaw, Laura Hanson Schlachter, Nancy Weifek, and Joseph Blasi present. Sarah … Read More
Latinx Co-op Power in the U.S.
Latinx people have long been an influential and integral part of the U.S. cooperative movement. Several Latinx-led organizations, such as Prospera in Oakland and Green Worker Cooperatives in the Bronx, have strongly influenced activity and models of cooperatives in their own localities and nationally. Furthermore, individual cooperative members who identify as Latinx bring their own … Read More
Cooperatives in New Orleans: Collective Action and Urban Development
Cooperatives have been central to the development of New Orleans. Anne Gessler asserts that local cooperatives have reshaped its built environment by changing where people interact and with whom, helping them collapse social hierarchies and envision new political systems. Gessler tracks many neighborhood cooperatives, spanning from the 1890s to the present, whose alliances with union, … Read More
Guidelines for Equitable Employee Ownership Transitions: How Investors, Founders, and Employees Can Share in the Value Created by Broadly Held Enterprise Ownership
These Guidelines for Equitable Employee Ownership Transitions are a collaborative work of practitioners and thought leaders in the fields of investment management, employee ownership, and socially responsible business who believe deeply in the promise of shared enterprise ownership to build a more just and inclusive economy.