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The question of considering a cooperative's transactions with its members in pursuance of its objects (its 'cooperativised activity') to be related party transactions and applying the fair value criterion to them has given rise to some debate in Spain. To move the debate forward, this article first studies the related party rules in the IFRS, the US GAAP and the Spanish PGC-2007 accounting standards then examines the economic background to cooperativised transactions, concluding that the fair value criterion is not appropriate in these cases. It continues with an empirical study of information on related party transactions divulged by cooperatives and the valuation criterion employed in transactions with their members by cooperatives that report in accordance with IFRS, and concludes by comparing the results of the empirical study with the previous analytical study. The main contributions of this paper are that to the best of our knowledge this is the first study of this kind on related parties; the comparison between its conclusions and the recent Normas sobre los Aspectos Contables de las Sociedades Cooperativas or Rules on Accounting Aspects of Cooperative Societies (Order EHA/3360/2010); and the suggestions to the accounting regulators for improving financial information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish social economy enterprises (SEE), like capital-based ones, have been facing a general economic crisis since 2008. SEE in the Murcia region are no exception. They are mainly small and mediumsized companies and because of their lack of size and structure they face considerable competitive difficulties in fighting this situation. This paper is based on a survey of 102 social economy enterprises in the Murcia Region, essentially labour companies and cooperatives in the service and industrial sectors, which was conducted in early 2010. To examine the situation in which companies from these sectors - mostly micro-enterprises - find themselves, information was collected on their main ratios in 2009, their expectations and their assessment of the competitive context and the main difficulties they face in the current situation of economic and social crisis. The extensive questionnaire made it possible to classify these enterprises into four types, based on the evolution of their main economic ratios (jobs, sales, investment and profits), and in a second stage, to consider the relation with whether or not the companies had adopted active innovation strategies and strategic planning. This made it possible to define the companies that had been able to improve or at least maintain the levels of their principal ratios even in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to identify the common operating characteristics of the Technological Centres in the Mondragon group. These Centres are one of the key factors upon which the group's industrial cooperatives have been able to create new, value-added jobs. The methodology used is based on the analysis of two theoretical models for economic development: one is open research for innovation as distinct from closed research, and, the other is the triple helix model for regional development. After analyzing in detail the twelve Technological Centres, four groups with common characteristics emerge and these are described in detail. Finally, the characteristics are reviewed at the Technology Centre Ikerlan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperatives develop their economic activity according to principles which can contribute to the growth of a network of socio-economic (relational capital) and socio-political (social capital) relations which in turn, generate the trust which is required for cooperation between companies as well as between companies and scientific-technological systems. This could facilitate the creation of the (relational) organised proximity required to provide fluent relations to the relations between the different actors within the territorial production and innovation systems. However, the presence of an extensive network of cooperatives could also define specific inertias and blockage factors. This paper develops and puts this evolutionary theoretical framework to the test when dealing how the organisation and innovative dynamic of the agro-food system of the Valencian citriculture are significantly conditioned by the presence of cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]