Clusters in the Solidarity Economy: the strategy of participating in networks of enterprises in Brazil.

The economy is always a social construction, which cannot be separated from society itself (Polanyi 2011, Laville, 2014). The Solidarity Economy prioritizes local development and human through practices of cooperation and self-management. The present debate about Solidarity Economy has emphasized the urge for strategies to strengthen enterprises via formation of networks of cooperation, due to the difficulty of access to the market, fin- ding that can be identified also in the international context (Spear, 2004, Borzaga, 2005, Young, 2007, Grassl, 2012). The aim of the study was to investigate, using a quantitative multivariate approach, if the organization in networks of cooperation fortifies those enterprises. For such, the national database from the survey performed in Brazil during the period 2010 to 2013 was analysed, comprising a sample with 9,897 enterprises. The results corroborated with the referred literature, foregrounding that the strategy of forming networks, indeed differs posi- tively enterprises.

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