Abstract
Limited skills and inadequate education brew unemployment, which later breed poverty in society. Cooperatives (coops) in South Africa have been players mitigating this catastrophic outcome. However, the value created by coops in South Africa has not been fully appreciated due to the historical, ideological, organizational, and operational challenges. Thus, coops early death and stunted growth is partly due to lack of governmental support. Their ability to contribute towards fighting unemployment and enhancing economic gains through effective business model in relation to creating employment, economic gains as well as socially uplifting people have been crucial. Coops not only create employment for those who are socially disadvantaged, but they also bridge the gap between informal and formal economies. It is essential that higher education institutions (HEI) contribute in developing an entrepreneurial mindset to enhance the development and strengthening a cooperatives skills and knowledge, as a key driving force. The role of HEI in equipping coops with emerging technologies requires participation of all stakeholders in the co-creation, for an ongoing engagement in both the business model design and the value proposition. Thus creating opportunities that seamlessly manage innovators and end-user for transparency, leading to better understanding and mutual knowledge creation as key outcome for knowledge transformation with diverse impact.
Presenters
Matshediso MohapeloaAcademic, Business School, Rhodes University Faculty of Commerce, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cooperatives, Co-creation, Emerging technologies, Social innovation
