Exploring Alternative Ownership Enterprises Across the Globe
Lessons and Models for a More Just Economy
Editor’s note: We’re excited to explore how guest posts from our partners can help inform shared ownership advocates. Do you have notes from a recent employee ownership or ownership economy event? Let us know! - MCH
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At Transform Finance, we’ve spent years exploring how Alternative Ownership Enterprises (AOEs) can fundamentally shift how capital, power, and governance are distributed in our economy. Our work has highlighted different AOE models, compared their impact, documented the AOE investment landscape, and developed solutions that unlock more capital for the space, focusing largely on the U.S.
But AOEs have a continually evolving history on every continent. In our June 26 webinar, we heard rapid-fire insights from 6 experts building AOE ecosystems in regions across the globe, and had small-group breakouts to build community and dig deeper. Beyond rich overviews of AOE activity in Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, the discussion surfaced common insights and themes that can inform practitioners looking to advance AOEs in any region.
How do regional, national, and local contexts matter for AOEs?
Across the board, our speakers mentioned that context has to be understood and analyzed first, before identifying specific models or relevant financing strategies.
Approaches that work in the U.S. can’t just be imported as-is. Starting with the values and goals of founders, rather than legal structures, we heard a range of place-specific creativity in structuring that works with existing laws and regulations.
Every region already has practices and histories of setting up businesses outside of the widespread investor-owned model. These emerge in a necessity-first way, rather than a design-first way, reflecting the needs of the communities building them, like the indigenous producer-based cooperatives highlighted by Nelson Rodriguez Harvey at Purpose Latin America.
Several necessary ingredients are needed to support healthy AOE ecosystems, so understanding assets and gaps is critical. On one hand, many regions don’t have enough technical assistance providers and legal experts to guide founders; on the other hand, business networks and trade associations are prevalent in the Global South and can be partners in spreading best practices.
How does culture inform AOE practices?
Buy-in for AOEs has to be developed in culturally relevant ways. For example: economic realities may lead communities to prefer immediate cash distributions over share ownership; negative experiences with Western development may lead to hesitation around technical-sounding solutions to problems.
As in the U.S., AOEs appeal across the political spectrum. Support is not just coming from left-wing governments, or in communities with a history of cooperativism. For example, Erinch Sahan’s Europe-focused breakout group identified interest from center-right think tanks and environmental justice advocates alike.
Acceptance of new approaches takes time to build. In places with few known examples of AOEs, this work entails revealing assumptions about business and economic development that leaders might not even realize they have.
What can supporters do to advance AOE ecosystems that are less developed?
Build capacity of existing institutions to adopt tools for AOEs. For example, development agencies, local and international grantmakers, and financial institutions can incentivize on-the-ground business ecosystems by offering catalytic capital, guarantees, and other products designed for AOEs.
Share stories and experiences of existing AOEs: Entrepreneurs are often unaware of ownership and legal tools, funding opportunities, and success stories of fellow leaders. Creating financial and impact benchmarks clarifies strategies for capital providers, and lifting up comparative examples shifts local understanding of possibilities in business design.
Make the impact case for AOEs to potential allies. Because ownership and governance can be modified to support a range of impact goals, there is likely demand from impact investors who want more transformative approaches, as surfaced in Harvey Koh’s breakout group focused on Asia.
What did our speakers think?
The conversation surfaced insights on what’s driving progress, what obstacles remain, and what’s needed to keep this momentum going. After the webinar, we asked our speakers to share a reflection for this report back:
Harvey Koh, Dalberg and Catalytic Capital Consortium: “In my group, I was struck by the range of actors already active in impact investing and inclusive business who were seeing AOE as a way of pushing further and deeper into their impact, across a diverse range of geographies across Asia, and by the aspiration for this ultimately to be seen as a mainstream idea with large-scale relevance.”
Maike Kauffman, Purpose Foundation: “Steward-ownership can be an attractive option for many entrepreneurs — for succession cases, startups looking for ways to secure their purpose orientation, or for entrepreneurs looking for coherent ownership models for their company. If steward-ownership feels like a restriction to you, it’s probably not the right fit (yet); it should rather feel like it gives more freedom.”
Nelson Rodríguez Harvey, Purpose Latin America: “Latin America holds a unique opportunity to lead in alternative ownership models that prioritize purpose over profit. Our mapping of 50 diverse cases — from responsible businesses in finance and health to foundation-owned enterprises and indigenous, producer-based ventures — reveals a vibrant ecosystem ready to grow, and we invite investors and civil society to help bring it to scale.”
Rachel Bachmann, Institute for Economic Democracy: “Employee ownership models that simultaneously distribute wealth and give employees a voice in their workplaces provide an innovative way for businesses to contribute to a better world, but the significant time, effort, cultural shift and technical support required to align all stakeholders successfully should not be underestimated.”
Juan Jardon-Pina, The Predistribution Initiative: “There’s a compelling opportunity to scale employee ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa if we invest and collaborate across different types of stakeholders in building the right ecosystem around it — and if the real conditions that companies, workers, and investors face are considered around these structures.”
Erinch Sahan, Doughnut Economics Action Lab: “AOEs present an opportunity to draw support from, and unlock solutions for, a wide range of movements — spanning a range of social and ecological concerns; and across the political spectrum, from faith-based and conservative communities to social and environmental justice movements.”
Where can I learn more?
This global perspective reminds us that while the models and technical details may differ, the values that underpin AOEs are universal: shared prosperity, meaningful voice, and economic structures that add more value than they extract.
We hope you’ll dig deeper and take these lessons into your own practice, wherever you work. If you missed the live session, you can watch the full recording: