Summary: | This handbook investigates 'member-owned' organizations, whether consumer co-operatives, agricultural and producer co-operatives, worker co-operatives, mutual building societies, friendly societies, credit unions, solidarity organizations, mutual insurance companies, or employee-owned companies. Such organizations can be owned by the consumers, producers, or employees-whether through single-stakeholder or multi-stakeholder ownership. 'Employee-owned' business means businesses where a significant proportion of the company is owned by its employees, whether as individual shareholders or through a trust, or some combination of the two; 'significant' is generally taken as at least 25 per cent. This complex set of organizations is named differently across countries: from 'mutuals' in the United Kingdom, to 'solidarity co-operatives' in Latin America
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