Open Team Production, the New Cooperative Firm, and Hybrid Advantage

Abstract

We critically assess the comparative efficiency advantages and disadvantages of capitalist and cooperative firms using team production as a frame of reference. We revisit the debate about such (dis)advantages in the context of open team production (OTP), a situation where team members are both internal and external to the firm. In contrast to the case of traditional (closed) team production, which focuses on the problem of monitoring team members within the firm, open team production, requires incentivizing both internal and external team members to commit to firm-specific cospecialized investments, as well as orchestrating and monitoring these continued investments. We identify some comparative efficiency (dis)advantages of traditional cooperative and capitalist firms in dealing with the novel challenges posed by OTP and we conclude that, in its context, a new type of a hybrid firm can possess comparative efficiency advantages vis-à-vis both types of traditional firms.

Big tech and platform-enabled multinational corporate capital(ism): the socialisation of capital, and the private appropriation of social value

“…While these ideas closely resonate with today's reality and discussions, a proper discussion would take us much further than the scope of this paper (see Konzelmann et al, 2021). Alternatives to the capitalist corporation, such as new cooperatives and hybrid forms, should also receive a fair hearing, not least because of some inherent advantages that they have in the context of 'open team production' (Berti and Pitelis, 2022).…”

“…Increasing the pie while also maintaining a position (value capture apparatus) that helps capture sustainably as much of it as possible tends to become the norm. Value co-creation takes the form of practices such as inter-firm collaboration, market extension, creation and co-creation, business ecosystems, open innovation, coopetition (competition with cooperation), orchestration of global value chains and local production systems (Pitelis, 2012a;Pitelis and Teece, 2018), and more generally 'open team production' (Berti and Pitelis, 2022).…”

“…Value can be co-created through the leverage of complementarities between economic and business actors, buyers, suppliers and even competitors (Pitelis and Teece, 2018), namely through 'open team production' (Berti and Pitelis, 2022). Co-creation helps increase the overall value and allows well-positioned firms to capture more value than the total value they have helped co-create.…”

Place-based industrial and regional strategy – levelling the playing field

“…Finally, more opportunities do exist for further research and policy measures. These may include cross fertilising ideas from strategic management and industrial/regional strategy , and exploring the opportunities provided by 'open team production', alongside alternatives to the hierarchical capitalist firm, such as new cooperatives and hybrids (Berti & Pitelis, 2022). We hope the in this Special Issue will inspire more work on these topical and important issues.…”

Elgar Introduction to Designing Organizations

“…In contemporary terms, design is often a process with paradoxical attributes. We focus on major trends in and types of design without exhausting the palette of possibilities; for instance, cooperatives (e.g., Berti & Pitelis, 2021;Bretos & Errasti, 2017) are not discussed because to do so would require another book. The focus is on theory as it contributes to practice.…”