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Background

International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP) Committee on Cooperative Research (CCR) has launched Coop Colloquium with the aim to start an academic dialogue on issues that are relevant to cooperative education and research. The experience of cooperative scholarship across the Asia and Pacific region is rich and diverse and ICA-AP CCR would like to bring these together in Coop Colloquium to share, inform and learn. Each iteration will focus on a theme, present different perspectives and have a colloquium. The 6th iteration of the Coop Colloquium will focus on the theme ‘Mutual Value Measurement framework’. It will be held in collaboration with Australia’s Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM) and Melbourne-based Monash Business School.

An innovative approach to measuring the total value mutuals create, developed by the cooperative and mutual sector in Australia offers a potential solution to the problem of mutual value measurement the world over. Measuring and communicating the total value that a cooperative and mutual enterprise (CME) creates has long been a challenging task as financial numbers (e.g. profit) rarely capture the complete value. The challenge of developing a consistent approach to measuring mutual value led the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) to engage with accounting researchers from one of Australia’s leading research focused business schools, Melbourne-based Monash Business School.

Over a two year period (2018-2019), a team of researchers, Dr. Paul Thambar and Professor Matthew Hall (Monash Business School), along with colleagues Professor Yuval Millo, (Warwick Business School, UK) and Dr Sarah Adams (Australian National University) collaborated with the BCCM, StateCover Mutual and twelve other cooperative and mutual enterprises (CMEs) to design and develop the Mutual Value Measurement framework. This ground-breaking measurement framework, known as MVM, enables any CME to measure the whole value of what they do and communicate it to the broader community, including members, potential new members and financial markets.

MVM provides CMEs with the capability of measuring and communicating information relating to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Importantly, the MVM provides a strong focus on measurement of social and governance related issues which are not well covered by other frameworks (e.g. integrated reporting) which tend to focus more on environmental issues. The BCCM has also embarked on an advocacy project with a select group of CMEs in 2022 to further assess and understand the policy and reporting implications of ESG for cooperatives and mutuals and as part of this project, Dr. Thambar and Professor Hall will further develop the MVM to provide ‘a bridge’ to ESG measurement and reporting.

The 6th ICA-AP Coop Colloquium brings together cooperative advocates, practitioners and young scholars from Australia and across Asia and Pacific region to inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of measuring and communicating the total value that a cooperative and mutual enterprise (CME) creates.

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Registration

We invite participants to join us for the 6th iteration of the Coop Colloquium and engage in an open discussion. Participants are invited to register at link. An email with login credentials will follow a day before the event.

About the Organisers

ICA-AP Committee on Cooperative Research (CCR) was established in the year 2000 to promote and support the initiation and furtherance of research activities within cooperatives and research organizations at regional, national and local levels, to enhance their social and economic effectiveness. It has members working in the field of research and academia and those in the member organisations of the ICA-AP. During its 23 years of existence, it has organized several regional research conferences and local seminars.

Monash Business School is one of the world’s leading business schools, internationally recognised for excellence in research and education. It is among the 1% of business schools worldwide to have the elite 'triple accreditation' by the major global business school accreditation bodies – AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA

BCCM is the peak body for cooperatives and mutuals in Australia. It unites these businesses with the common objective of increasing awareness of cooperatives and mutuals and the important contribution they make to the economy and community life. It is a powerful and informed voice in the business community, working to remove the barriers to fair competition and improving the business environment for all cooperatives and mutuals. For more details on the research collaboration with the Monash Business School, see www.mvm.coop