Alpine cooperatives boast 100 years of success
From their rudimentary beginnings as a rural self-help group, the cooperatives successively evolved into major employers in various branches of trades.
The ever-changing environment still forces cooperatives to reconsider their original ideas time and again. The orientation towards the new century within a united Europe must already be attacked now. The task at hand requires a thorough investigation of those factors that will influence the field of cooperatives in the future.
To this end, a combined effort involving the Raiffeisen-Landesbank Tirol, both the Tyrolean and the South Tyrolean Raiffeisen Associations, as well as Innsbruck University brought into being the "International Institute of Alpine Cooperative Research" in autumn 1995. By the end of 1999 the association already totalled 58 members, including cooperative syndicates, Raiffeisen Banks, other cooperatives and individuals from all of Austria and South Tyrol. Next year we will look for new members in all federal states of Austria and additionally in Bavaria, and actively integrate them into the causes of our association.