Working paper 01/2026
Distress of the Entrepreneur-Member and Governance of Retailer Cooperatives
Mutuality, equal treatment and assessment of support in organised retail distribution
The paper examines how a retailer cooperative can assess support for an entrepreneur-member in distress while reconciling contractual obligations, mutualistic principles, equal treatment and economic and financial sustainability.
It proposes the Cooperative Member Distress Framework (CMDF), a conceptual model integrating legal checks, governance and an economic comparison of alternatives. A wholly hypothetical example illustrates how it works. The model has not yet been empirically validated.
- Author
- Argenziano Michele Ph.D.
- Version
- 0.2 — October 2026
- Field
- Cooperatives, governance and business distress