Using the institutional grammar to understand collective resource management in a heterogenous cooperative facing external shocks

Abstract

Worker cooperatives in the gig economy can involve large and heterogeneous memberships, which makes them vulnerable to member opportunism depleting collective resources. External shocks may present another challenge for collective resource management. This raises the question of how heterogeneous cooperatives design rules to mitigate opportunistic behavior and whether these rules evolve in the face of external shocks. We study the case of Smart Belgium between 2017 and 2022, thereby covering the COVID-19 pandemic and new cooperative legislation as external shocks. Building on the institutional grammar methodology, we analyze 412 rules of Smart. The findings indicate that external shocks with sudden resource scarcity do not necessarily motivate rule changes (COVID-19) while external shocks without an effect on collective resources can motivate rule changes (national policy change). The study also shows what kind of rules heterogeneous cooperatives may design to mitigate opportunism.