Challenges of Family Co-operative Sustainability: An Autoethnographic Narrative

Abstract

This article focuses on my experience of being a part of family co-operative members. I use the method of autoethnography to contribute to broader academic debates on challenges of family co-operative sustainability as a scarce research area in entrepreneurship study especially in the branch of social entrepreneurship. I will present my personal narrative about my experience of struggling in maintaining the existence of the co-operative. Autoethnography, as an autobiographical research genre, indicates multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to cultural. In this research I am both the research participants and the researcher. My article aims to reveal how the family co-operative dynamic in sustaining their existence in the market. I begin with my personal narrative. I then problematize conceptions about the challenges and discuss them from the point of view of my own narrative and from episodes and ethnography in the literature. Finally, I reflect on family co-operative board can more effectively lead and manage the challenges for the co-operative sustainability.