Abstract
The purpose of this article is to identify the most effective governance configurations, including gender composition, for the creation and amplification of solidarity economy cooperative (SEC) members’ income. It is known that the governance of these organizations affects their ability to provide work and income to millions of disfranchised people around the world. However, the relationship between the governance of SECs, their members’ gender, and their income remains under-investigated and under-theorized. To bridge this gap, we employ the qualitative comparative analysis method to investigate different dimensions of the governance of 327 small Brazilian SECs. Our results indicate two governance configurations that are highly likely to lead to the production and increase of members’ income. In general, our results show that the most successful SECs in this regard are those that adopt more traditional governance structures and have a prevalence of male members. Our findings also indicate that democratic aspect of SEC governance must be coupled with other governance structures in order to deliver the expected results. Our results will be of interest to both scholars and SEC leaders for better understanding and managing the connection between the governance of these organizations and their members’ income generation.