The Consumer Co-operative Movement in Finland and Lessons We Can Learn from It

Abstract

Finland has a strong consumer co-operative movement with a market share of approximately 46 percent of daily goods. The co-operatives’ road to success in Finland has not been a straightforward process. In this article we describe the history of the Finnish SOK retail co-operative and pose the question of what we can learn from the retail co-operatives’ experiences. Historical research strives to demonstrate the way things used to be: What happened, why it happened, and what the consequences were. It searches for explanations using cause and effect. The economic research undertaken by business science aims to find ways for financial organisations and entrepreneurs to be successful. This article combines these perspectives. The source of this article is the research literature. The early 20th century in many ways proved to be a golden age for Finnish co-operatives. After the Second World War, in the 1950s and particularly in the 1960s, the general development of Finnish society clearly accelerated, and the consumer co-operative movement was unable to keep up with the pace of this development. After a severe crisis, a new rise began. What can we learn from this? In this article, we highlight several development trajectories and finally summarize them into ten main points. The list can be summarised as follows: internalize and stay true to the co-operative purpose and aims, manage the model accordingly, find a balance between the business and member community aspects of the model – the two different but complementary roles and remain current and future-oriented. Historically, poor success has been the result of doing the opposite: having too many side interests, forgetting or ignoring the co-operative identity, and romanticising the past.

Received: 28 April 2023
Accepted: 01 August 2023