Latin America has a long tradition of cooperative development. Although there is a strong convergence in terms of typology and impact on the economy and society, the different contexts, degrees of development and relations with public authorities have led to very heterogeneous positions of the Latin American cooperative movement.

In order to promote research on cooperatives among HEC Montréal researchers, professors and students by using CoopGateway, databases and university and professional networks, the Institute has set up a Specialized Research Group on Latin America. The main objectives of this research group are the promotion of data on cooperatives in Latin America and research support for professors and master’s and doctoral students at HEC Montréal.

Members of the Latin America Research Group:

  • Sébastien Arcand (Department of Management)
  • Luciano Barin Cruz (Department of Management)
  • Inmaculada Buendía Martínez (Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives)
  • Claude Francœur (Department of Accounting Sciences)
  • Denis Larocque (Department of Decision Sciences)
  • Jorge H. Mejia Morelos (Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation)
  • Benoît Tremblay (Department of Management)
  • Marcelo Vinhal Nepomuceno (Department of Marketing)

This component includes various lines of research, varying according to the interests of the researchers and the evolution of the cooperative sector itself. In all cases, the objective is to advance knowledge about the Latin American cooperative movement.

Lead researcher: Inmaculada Buendía Martínez

Research topics

Researchers: Inmaculada Buendía Martínez and Denis Larocque

The profile of Latin American financial services cooperatives (FSCs) is characterized by its heterogeneity. Its historical development, the various crises and the role of public authorities have led to a fragmentation of its evolution according to three trends: the countries in which the FSCs have not undergone significant changes, a second group of countries in which the sector has suffered a gradual deterioration and a third group in which the authorities have a clear commitment to FSCs to fight financial exclusion. This research issue focuses on this third group and aims to analyze the evolution of FSCs from an approach of public policies that have enabled the consolidation of the FSC sector within national financial systems.

Publications:

  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada, Denis Larocque et Carolina Hidalgo-Lopez (To be published). “Grow to live. The mergers of the Brazilian credit unions”.
  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada, Denis Larocque et Carolina Hidalgo-Lopez (To be published). “Drivers of Brazilian credit unions”.
  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada, Yenni Redjah et Benoit Tremblay, B. (2012). “Las cooperativas de servicios financieros en el continente americano”. Ekonomiaz, Revista Vasca de Economía, 79: 200-233.
  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada (2010). “Políticas públicas, integración regional y cooperativismo de crédito: reflexiones desde una perspectiva comparada en el entorno latinoamericano”. Dans Martí, J.P. (Coord.). Impacto de la integración regional y la globalización sobre las cooperativas de ahorro y crédito en el MERCOSUR. Montevideo : UDELAR-IDRC/CRDI, p. 15-26.

Master’s projects

  • Hidalgo-Lopez, Carolina (2019). “Caractérisation des coopératives financières brésiliennes dans un processus de changement (incorporation, absorption et faillite) – Application d’un modèle de survie à temps discret”. Projet supervisé de M. Sc., option intelligence d’affaires sous la direction de Denis Larocque et Inmaculada Buendía Martínez, Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives of HEC Montréal.

Funding: Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives

Researcher: Inmaculada Buendía Martínez

There is no doubt that public policies have a direct effect on the growth of the entrepreneurial sector. Cooperatives are not immune to this influence, which is also necessary to enable them to operate on an equal footing with other forms of enterprise. Some Latin American countries have profoundly modified their legal and institutional frameworks in order to consolidate the cooperative sector within their national economies. This research question focuses on the analysis of these cases.

Publications:

  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada, Éric Brat, François Normandin  (To be published). “Cooperative banks and rural development : some international evidences”.
  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada et Benoît Tremblay (2012). “Financial Services Cooperatives, public policy and financial inclusión: A perspective from Latin America”. En Oluyombo, O.O. (Ed.). Cooperative Finance in Developing Economies. Lagos: Soma Print Limited, p. 133-146.

Works in progress:

  • The research visit of Fernando Paúl Pulgarín Chiriboga, doctoral student at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico) at the IICADD, will allow the development of a research entitled “Impact of macroeconomic factors on the size of the Ecuadorian cooperative sector” carried out in collaboration with Professor Inmaculada Buendía Martínez. The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact that economic variables, business structure, legal framework and political orientations have had on the size of the Ecuadorian cooperative sector over a historical period of five decades.

Funding: Institut international des coopératives Alphonse-et-Dorimène-Desjardins

Researcher: Inmaculada Buendía Martínez

Currently, social pressures push organizations to meet public expectations by adopting various socially responsible actions. In the case of the banking sector, the generic aspects included in the concept of sustainable development must be complemented by specific requirements based on the particularities of banking activities and their strategic importance in the economy.

Even if social responsibility is integrated into the specific values ​​and principles that define the organizational configuration of cooperatives, the growth of the size of FSCs and their visibility has resulted in a greater need to be compared with financial institutions with share capital. both nationally and internationally.

Disclosure of the activities of FSCs to the community constitutes a new form of competition which leads them towards an implicit obligation of general communication and raises questions: should the social responsibility of FSCs be an isomorphic process compared to commercial banks? Is the responsibility towards the community the same for all FSCs in a given territory?

Publications:

  • Buendía Martínez, Inmaculada and Benoît Tremblay (2014). “Responsabilidad social y cooperativismo: un análisis desde la industria bancaria canadiense”. Revista Vasca de Economía Social, 11: 59-74.
  • Rizkallah, Élias and Inmaculada Buendía Martínez (2011). “La responsabilité sociale des institutions financières au Canada : une analyse exploratoire des coopératives de services financiers”. Dans Blanc, J.; Colongo, D. (Coords.). Les contributions des coopératives à une économie plurielle. Paris: L’Harmattan, p. 375-394.
  • Rizkallah, Élias and Inmaculada Buendía Martínez (2011). “Corporate Social Responsibility in the Financial Sector: are financial cooperatives ready to the challenge?”. CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa, 73: 127-149.

Funding: Alphonse and Dorimène Desjardins International Institute for Cooperatives