Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen: 1818 - 1888 - 1988: Raiffeisentag '88

SIGLEBibliothek Weltwirtschaft Kiel A 173746 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Of expertise, social capital, and democracy: Assessing the organizational governance and decision-making in German Renewable Energy Cooperatives

We examine the unique challenges pertaining to organizational governance and decision-making in Renewable Energy Cooperatives (REC). We find that internal governance frameworks often overrule competing external frameworks, leading to decision-making processes in the RECs that conflict with the external governance framework stipulated by law. Although results were based on a single-country (Germany) analysis of 15 different RECs, the data we gathered from 38 problem-centered interviews and 15 participant observations, when positioned within the broader context of social-political governance, reveal problems and challenges that likely pertain to all RECs. RECs have helped propel the energy transition, and now they are being challenged to integrate their sizable social capital into the broader energy system. Expertise is often called for beyond what a volunteer organization can support. This leads to strains in the democratic approach to decision-making. These strains can be analyzed using transaction cost theory. Efforts at transaction cost minimization lead to decisions being made by the internal governance framework, even though these decisions conflict with the existing governance framework stipulated by law. This perspective yields insight both for policy makers and for REC managers seeking paths to growth

Developing a regulatory framework for the financial, management performance and social reporting systems for co-operatives in developing countries: A case study of South Africa

PURPOSE : This report is on a team effort to advise the Department of Trade and Industry on the development of a regulatory framework for the auditing of Financial, Management. Performance and Social Reporting Systems for co-operatives. ORIENTATION : There was no framework in place prescribing requirements for reporting on financial, management and social performance of co-operatives. As a result, the team assisted the Department of Trade and Industry with the development of a proposed reporting framework with reference to international best practices and existing financial reporting frameworks. FINDINGS : The research performed showed that existing reporting frameworks and practices do not meet the reporting requirements of co-operatives in all aspects because of the different nature of co-operatives as opposed to shareholder-owned entities.http://www.actacommercii.co.za/am2016Business Managemen

Community Energy Storage: Governance and Business Models

The decreasing costs of distributed energy resources and increasing need for flexibility have attracted the attention of many in community energy storage (CES) business. CES, however, is a complex sociotechnical system with a variety of technologies, actors, and interactions. In the changing energy landscape, two pathways for CES, namely, local and virtual, are prominent. The range of technical, economic, environmental, and institutional values differ in these pathways. This chapter analyzes business models of multivalue and multiactor CES and provides recommendations for enabling regulatory and governance conditions