Programme

Sunday

Arrival at workshop venue in Sofia

, October 8

Monday

9.30 Welcome to the MACE Workshop

, October 9

Konrad Hagedorn

10.00 Introduction

Programme overview and objectives of the workshop

Cooperatives – and cooperative systems: Facts, figures and research questions

Markus Hanisch

12.00 Lunch break

13.30 Perspectives on cooperative development: On public, private and collective goods

and respective choices

Markus Hanisch

14.30 Coffee break

15.00 Colloquium

Presentations of workshop participants and discussion

19.00 Welcome Dinner

Tuesday

A New Institutional Economics perspective on the evolution of traditional and new

cooperatives

9.30 Five Stages of cooperative development

, October 10

Typical problems of cooperative management and their solutions

The emergence of new forms of cooperatives

Constantine Iliopoulos

12.30 Lunch break

14.00 Analysing cases of best and worst practice

Constantine Iliopoulos

15.00 Coffee break

15.30 Colloquium

Presentations of workshop participants and discussion

Wednesday

A Development Economics perspective on rural cooperatives

9.00 Between self-help and doing business: The role of cooperatives and associations in

rural development

, October 11

development

Functions: The role of the state, the market and the role of cooperatives in economic

Infrastructure and cooperative rural service industries

Ruerd Ruben

12.30 Lunch break

14.00 Colloquium

Presentation of workshop participants and discussion

18.00 Visit to Sofia

Thursday

An Organizational Economics perspective on agricultural cooperatives

9.30 Particularities of the Agri-Food Sector

, October 12

The changing role of cooperative firms in the agri-food supply chain

Cooperatives and corporate governance

umbrella cooperatives)?

Changes in cooperative systems – do we need a two-tier model (federated and

Jos Bijman

12.30 Lunch break

14.00 Capital constraints and problems of internationalization and globalization

Jos Bijman

15.00 Coffee break

15.30 Three days and three perspectives on cooperatives: Concluding remarks to seminar

and colloquium sessions

Podium with seminar lecturers

Friday

Visit to the morning session of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) conference on

“The Role of Cooperatives for SME Development”

, October 13

9.00

The Role of cooperatives for SME development in the EU

Dr. Markus Hanisch, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

Strengthening SME through cooperatives in Germany

. Heinz-Otto Weber, Philipps University Marburg, Germany

Financing SME trough savings and credit cooperatives

Prof. Dr. Jost W. Kramer, University of Technology, Business and Design, Wismar

Germany

12.00 Lunch