Machine generated contents note: Introduction: principal problems and general development of cooperative enterprise Patrizia Battilani and Harm Schröter; Part I. Cooperative Issues in a Global Overview: 1. The geographical dimension of the cooperative movement Ann Hoyt and Tito Menzani; 2. A world of variations: sectors and forms Vera Zamagni; 3. Cooperative movements in the Republic of Korea Hongjoo Jung and Hans Jürgen Rösner; 4. '... What is the end purpose of it all?': the centrality of values for cooperative success in the market place Ian MacPherson; 5. Why cooperatives fail: case studies from Western Europe, Japan, and North America, 1950-2010 Peter Kramper; 6. Co-ops' new challenge: demutualization and its problems Patrizia Battilani and Harm Schröter; Part II. Selected Core Issues of Cooperative Enterprise in a Historical Perspective: 7. Legal frameworks and property rights in US-agricultural co-ops: the hybridization of cooperative structures Fabio Chaddad and Michael Cook; 8. The performance of workers' cooperatives Verginie Pe;rotin; 9. Organization: top down or bottom up? The organizational development of consumer cooperatives, 1950-2000 Espen Ekberg; 10. The politics of commercial dynamics: consumer cooperative adaptations to post war consumerism in the UK and Sweden, 1950-2010 Katarina Friberg, Rachael Vorberg-Rugh, Anthony Webster and John Wilson; Conclusion: 11. The decisive factors of cooperatives' future: their nature, longevity, role, and environment Patrizia Battilani and Harm Schröter.