5. Conclusion
The objective of this study was to empirically study how the defining characteristics of the dual nature are manifested in the interpretations in the chosen context. An extensive review of the dual nature was used as a theoretical frame and its key contributions were utilized as an analytical lens to interpret our empirical data. According to the traditionalidea,the worker co-operators would be interested in taking mutual responsibility for the continuity of the business actions and securing not only their own, but also their peer members’ future employment. Instead, the members gave hardly any consideration to the communal aspects of the business. The main concern seemed to be maintaining an operational level sufficient for providing the necessary services for individual entrepreneurial actions, e.g., billing and other administrative services. Based on the traditional idea, the worker co-operative community strives to satisfy the employment needs of all members through their mutual efforts. As our data suggests, these collective efforts were rare. For an individual, the community has more relevance as a practical way to realize individual job opportunities than creating new job opportunities co-operatively. Troberg (1997) states that many new co-operatives are formed without a strong ideology; but still have a functional and flexible way of doing business. Similarly, we found that people join a co-operative to promote their own wellbeing by employing themselves in a secure way. Alongside personal freedom, flexibility was deemed to be an attractive feature of co-operatives, but in practice these qualities seem to be a combination generating internal conflict. Based on the data, the instrumental value is strongly emphasized when talking about co-operatives at an individual level. People generally seem to be reluctant in taking responsibility for mutual duties (Vuotto, 2012; Puusa & Hokkila, 2015a).
