UKSCS Annual Lecture 2025
The dual nature of co-operatives – finding a balance between member-community and business role
Wednesday 5 November 2025 - 2pm - 3pm (GMT) - online
The original purpose of co-ops’ operations is unique and culminates in maximising the social and economic purposes of the co-op members...Co-ops are owned and democratically controlled by their members. The members also serve as the customers for the co-op’s services. 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 . 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, organisation change, organisational identity, and work-community skills/organisation 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 co-operative 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 organisational speaker, TED TALK speaker, and an awarded teacher.
*Puusa, A. & Saastamoinen, S. (2021). Novel idea, but business first? Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 9(1), Article 100135.
You can book your free place via the link below ↓
(Please note the change of date from the one originally advertised)
