This book chapter develops an argument on the way legal forms for co-operative enterprise are designed to meet the needs of members. In developing a critique of the investor-owned firm, the role of legal membership and its link to legal identity in establishing a co-operative enterprise are evaluated. The purpose is to distinguish conceptually between common ownership, joint ownership and co-ownership, and their potential influence on future co-operative development.
It is argued that the mediation of business purpose and social identity through the choice of legal form influences the power and wealth sharing arrangements of a co-operative enterprise. Furthermore, the emergence of social enterprise has challenged co-operative models based on common ownership by a single stakeholder to produce hybrid models that express co-operative values and principles in new ways
