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This article analyses how the MONDRAGON Group has overcome the barriers that the literature identifies in the creation of employee owned companies (Mygind and Poulsen, 2021), and how it has managed to grow over the last few decades.

To this end, based on an analysis of the legislative framework and the internal documentation of the MONDRAGON Group and its cooperatives, the case of what is often considered the most successful and highly developed network of co-operative firms is studied.

The study leads us to conclude that MONDRAGON has had sufficient capacity to overcome the barriers faced by worker-owned companies and has known how to adapt to the economic and social demands of each moment, despite the fact that at certain times it has had to act flexibly in its principles.

The work is limited to the analysis of the Group's internal documentation. It would be interesting to complement this vision with the perceptions of MONDRAGON's partners.

The MONDRAGON Group's study can show other cooperative experiences what the keys to success are.

MONDRAGON has been analysed from different perspectives, but how it has overcome the specific barriers presented by employee-owned companies has not been specifically studied. This perspective makes it possible to identify some of the group's success factors.

Underlying much recent development in data science and artificial intelligence (AI) is a dependence on the labour of precarious crowdworkers via platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk. These platforms have been widely critiqued for their exploitative labour relations, and over recent years, there have been various efforts by academic researchers to develop interventions aimed at improving labour conditions. The aim of this paper is to explore US-based crowdworkers’ views on two proposed interventions: a browser plugin that detects automated quality control “Gold Question” (GQ) checks and a proposal for a crowdworker co-operative.

The authors interviewed 20 US-based crowdworkers and undertook a thematic analysis of collected data.

The findings indicate that US-based crowdworkers tend to have negative and mixed feelings about the GQ detector, but were more enthusiastic about the crowdworker co-operative.

Drawing on theories of precarious labour, this study suggests an explanation for the findings based on US-based workers’ objective and subjective experiences of precarity. The authors argue that for US-based crowdworkers “constructive” interventions such as a crowdworker co-operative have more potential to improve labour conditions.

This policy brief calls for co-operative industry associations to implement policies that encourage co-operatives to embrace the SDGs in a way that reflects the co-operative difference. In particular, this brief explores why it is important for co-operatives to measure and report on the SDGs and to link the SDGs to the seven principles of co-operatives. We argue that reporting on the SDGs in the context of the seven principles enables co-operatives to illustrate their co-operative difference from investor-owned businesses (IOB) who are increasingly reporting on SDG performance. We identify key recommendations that are critical in facilitating co-operatives’ adoption of the SDGs and in reporting their performance relative to the SDGs and the seven principles.

This study aims to examine the influence of procedural capabilities for public procurement participation on small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) sales performance in Tanzania. Also, the study establishes the interaction effect of internet marketing capabilities on the relationship between procedural capabilities and sales performance.

The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis and PROCESS macro for simple interaction analysis to analyse cross-sectional data that were obtained through questionnaire from surveyed SMEs’ managers. The included SMEs are those that are involved in supplying goods, services and works to public entities in Dodoma, Tanzania.

The findings reveal that procedural capabilities for participation in public procurement enhance SMEs to improve sales performance. Also, there is a significant and positive relationship between internet marketing capabilities and sales performance. Lastly, internet marketing capabilities strengthen the relationship between procedural capabilities and sales performance.

This study is a wake-up call to SMEs to better comprehend public procurement procedures and e-business practices to use the available public procurement opportunities. It is argued that SMEs should invest in technology to market their businesses through social media and online platforms. According to the study, SMEs may benefit from improving their sales performance by fully utilising their internet marketing capabilities and participating in public procurement opportunities.

This study adds to the two main streams of literature that emphasise harnessing public procurement opportunities for SMEs (through public procurement participation) and leveraging internet marketing capabilities for SMEs to improve their sales performance.

Factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural market information access remain a mixed debate, and there are contradictive views among studies. This study examined factors influencing the use of mobile phone technologies for agricultural marketing information access. The study is anchored on the technological acceptance model (TAM).

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted with a sample size of 400 grape smallholder farmers. A structured questionnaire and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to gather data. Descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches were used in data analysis.

The study confirmed grape smallholder farmers generally considered mobile phone technologies as an appropriate communication channel to stay informed about agricultural marketing information. It was found that reliable electricity supply, relevance, timeliness, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of mobile phone technologies influenced the level of agricultural marketing information access.

This research is limited to a selected number of grape smallholder farmers in Dodoma, Tanzania, and leaves out those without mobile phones. Also, the study was cross-sectional in nature, so it may not be necessarily capable of consistently providing critical and consistent information about the same population over a series of times.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by integrating the use of mobile phone technologies to access marketing information in informing policy and decision-making processes to promote grape marketing.

Higher learning institutions (HLIs) need to have quality service facilities to achieve customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth (WoM). The purpose of this study is to assess customer satisfaction as a mediator of service facility and WoM in the context of Tanzania's HLIs.

A mixed-methods approach was used to achieve the study objectives. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were adopted to obtain the names of 201 students in HLIs in Tanzania. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to test the hypotheses.

The findings show that service facility is significantly associated with both WoM and customer satisfaction, while the relationship between customer satisfaction and WoM is significant. The study also found that customer satisfaction mediates the relationship between service facility and WoM.

The practitioners of HLIs can invest in improving service facility. Service quality is an important component that impacts WoM in HLIs. This is the most important element that impacts students' satisfaction and WoM in HLIs more than any other element of service quality.

This paper adds to the body of knowledge on the role of customer satisfaction in mediating the relationship between service facility and WoM in the context of Tanzania's HLIs. This study also presents a methodological contribution for a better understanding of the predictors of customer satisfaction in HLIs from the students' point of view.

Despite the fact that students in higher education contributes significantly to the number of professionals, little has been done to incorporate the students’ perspectives on the status of procurement and supply professions in Tanzania. This study examined the challenges confronting the procurement and supply professions from the perspective of future procurement professionals enrolled in Tanzanian higher education.

A cross-sectional design was used to collect data from undergraduate students majoring in procurement and supply chain management in Tanzanian higher education using a structured questionnaire.

The findings revealed that the challenges affecting the procurement and supply professions were buyer- and supplier-related challenges as perceived by Tanzanian higher education students.

The study's findings should be generalized with caution because the findings represent the perspectives of Tanzanian procurement and supply undergraduate business students. Furthermore, the included sample of procurement and supply undergraduates cannot represent all students' perceptions; thus, other studies may broaden the sample by including the opinions of other higher education students.

This is the first study that looks at how students in higher education institutions, who are considered future procurement and supply professionals, perceive the challenges of the procurement and supply professions in Tanzania.

This study aims to analyse the components of sustainable business models (SBMs) in the dairy industry, in relation to firm-relevant organisational features (size, ownership structure and production process) and through the lenses of the business model framework and the sustainable value exchange matrix (SVEM). This contribution proposes a taxonomy of emerging SBMs and sustainable value creation in the dairy industry.

This research makes use of a multiple case study approach, with cases selected in collaboration with industry experts. The selected firms are highly committed to sustainability transition. Results are drawn from qualitative data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary sources. The interpretation phases, initially based on open coding, have been enriched by applying the components of business models (BMs) frameworks and the SVEM, and the analyses have been enhanced through an additional interpretative workshop with experts.

The authors related the BMs characteristics of some typical dairy firms transitioning to sustainability, using SBM components and taxonomies emerging in the literature, based on the formalisation of sustainability practices, the scope of operations, and the degree of integration of the three dimensions of sustainable value. These findings led to the discovery of three types of SBM in this dairy industry, referred to as “Milky Ways”.

This paper contributes to the scant literature on sustainability in dairy firms, highlighting the different paths followed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), cooperatives and large companies in remoulding their business models towards sustainability and thus achieving sustainable value creation.

The importance of sustainable supply chain management practices (SSCMPs) in the financial performance of firms is increasing significantly. However, the influence of SSCMPs on financial performance can vary across sectors and contexts. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the influence of SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the food processing industry. For this, the influence of sustainable environment practices, customer and supplier relationships, social SCMPs and lean supply chain on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs is studied.

A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 56 food processing SMEs in Mbeya, Tanzania. The study employed a cross-sectional research design and a census approach to capture data from all eligible SMEs in the target population. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) were utilized as the primary data analysis techniques.

The findings of the study revealed a positive and significant influence of various SSCMPs on the financial sustainability of food processing SMEs. Specifically, sustainable environment management practices (β = 0.147, p = 0.000), supplier relationship management (SRM) (β = 0.715, p = 0.001), customer relationship management (CRM) (β = 0.894, p = 0.016), social SCMP (β = 0.901, p = 0.005) and lean supply chain practices (β = 0.675, p = 0.003) were all found to have a significant effect on the financial sustainability of the surveyed food processing SMEs.

The study recommends the need to plan and integrate SSCMPs in firms’ operation processes, promote collaboration and networking and offer capacity-building initiatives that equip food processing SMEs with the necessary skills and knowledge to implement SSCMPs effectively. These will nurture effective adoption of SSCMP, leading to improved operations, environmental performance, financial sustainability and long-term viability of the sector.

While SSCMPs have gained attention in the literature, the specific focus on its impact on financial sustainability in the context of food processing SMEs adds originality to this research. Industry stakeholders and policymakers can utilize the findings of this study to develop supportive policies and programs that promote sustainable supply chain practices and enhance financial sustainability in the food processing sector.

Entrepreneurship by Indigenous people in Canada and Australia, while historically connected to the ancestral lands and traditional practices of Indigenous people, has been evolving and expanding in scope and nature. In this article, the authors aim to offer an integrative framework for capturing the contemporary dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people as they pursue venture creation as part of their broader development aspirations.

Drawing on literature from place-based views of entrepreneurship and social identity theory, the authors develop a typology to account for four modes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people along two contextual dimensions – Indigenous territory and Indigenous marker.

Indigenous practicing entrepreneurship may choose to conduct business within or outside of traditional lands and demonstrate more or less indigeneity in their business activities as they marshal resources and seek opportunities. The authors identify how these diverse Indigenous businesses contribute to the economic development among Indigenous communities as part of their ongoing struggle to rebuild their “nations” using business.

This article contributes by differentiating sociocultural vs economic resources in noneconomic contexts to develop a theoretical typology of Indigenous entrepreneurship. By detailing the relations between Indigenous territories and Indigenous lands and between Indigenous identity and Indigenous markers, the authors contribute to a more nuanced and practical conceptualization of Indigenous entrepreneurship.