An article co-authored by Derek Jones, the Irma M. and Robert D. Morris Professor of Economics, was recently published online in ILR Review: The Journal of Work and Policy. “Efficiency in Employee-Owned Enterprises: An Econometric Case Study of Mondragon” presented the results of the authors’ study that compared efficiency in a group of stores that have varying levels of employee ownership and involvement.
For this research, Jones and co-authors Saioa Arando and Monica Gago of Mondragon University and Takao Kato of Colgate University looked at Eroski, the largest member of the Mondragon group of worker cooperatives. They compared three types of stores and found that those with higher levels of employee ownership and involvement showed faster sales growth than those with limited or no employee ownership and involvement.
They also looked at possible reasons for the differences including the more extensive opportunities for employee involvement and training as well as stronger economic incentives in cooperatives.