2025 Online lecture: Dual nature of co-operatives

The dual nature of co-operatives – finding a balance between member-community and business role

The 2025 UKSCS annual lecture contributes to the ongoing dilemma of the dual nature and defining characteristics of co-operatives. These special characteristics create the unique dual nature of co-ops: they are simultaneously both business enterprises and member associations. Finding a balance between being a business operation and a member association has become a central theme in the paradigm of the management and governance of co-ops...especially in situations where large co-ops have been deemed to have lost some of their co-op identity.

Anu Puusa is Professor in Management in the faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. She is a Docent of Management and Co-operatives at LUT School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology. Her current research interest areas are co-operatives (namely their dual nature, co-operative governance and management), expert organisations, organization change, organizational identity, and work-community skills/Organization Citizenship behaviour. Professor Puusa has published textbooks and numerous journal articles and other publications. She has several co-operative positions of trust such as membership of the board and presidency at Cooperatives Europe, membership of the board at the Finnish cooperative apex organization Pellervo Coop Center and a vice-presidency at the board of Pohjois-Karjalan Osuuskauppa, a regional consumer cooperative that is part of S-Group. She is an experienced organizational speaker, TED TALK speaker, and an awarded teacher.