Centre on Mutual and Co-owned Business
The Centre on Mutual and Co-owned Business
Rethinking ownership, reshaping business
Oxford’s Centre on Mutual and Co-owned Business seeks to change how we think about ownership. While most firms serve shareholders first, mutuals and co-owned businesses prove that enterprises can thrive when they are accountable to employees, customers and communities.
We bring research, education and policy together to strengthen and champion these alternative models – building the evidence, networks and leadership needed to make them a greater force in the economy.
Our initiatives
About the Centre
The way a business is owned shapes everything – from how it is governed, to whose interests it serves, to how it is held to account. In conventional shareholder-owned firms, maximising returns for external investors is the overriding priority. By contrast, mutual and co-owned businesses are built on different principles. They place value on accountability to their members – customers, employees and communities – balancing financial success with social purpose.
Mutuals and co-owned enterprises are a vital yet under-recognised part of the economy. From building societies and NHS Foundation Trusts to the John Lewis Partnership, they show that ownership models rooted in participation and shared accountability can create long-term resilience, trust and value.
The Centre on Mutual and Co-owned Business seeks to shine a light on these models – to study, strengthen and champion them. Our aims are to:
- Undertake cutting-edge research into the performance, resilience and social impact of the mutual and co-owned sectors.
- Develop professional education tailored to the needs of current and future leaders.
- Foster debate and spark new thinking on ownership, accountability and governance.
- Build a national and international network of academics, practitioners and policymakers.
At a time when the assumption that business exists primarily to maximise shareholder returns is increasingly challenged, the Centre provides the research, evidence and ideas needed to broaden the debate. Through rigorous scholarship, events, and advocacy, we are working to ensure that alternative models are better understood, more widely adopted, and properly valued in public and policy discourse.
Supported by Mutuo, the Employee Ownership Association, and our founding corporate partner Simplyhealth, the Centre is becoming the leading source of expertise on ownership and corporate governance – and a hub for all those committed to building fairer, more accountable and more sustainable forms of enterprise.
Contact us
All enquiries should be directed to Dr Ana Nacvalovaite at ana.nacvalovaite@kellogg.ox.ac.uk
- Professor Jonathan Michie, Director
- Professor Marya Besharov, Official Fellow
- Dr Ana Nacvalovaite, Research Fellow
- Dr Susanna Kislenko, Director of the Founder Leadership Research Project
- Dr Ruth Yeoman, Research Fellow
- Professor Joseph Blasi, Visiting Fellow
- Professor Chris Rowley, Visiting Fellow
- Dr Gorgi Krlev, Visiting Fellow
- Mr Graeme Nuttall, Visiting Fellow
- Professor Kadriye Bakirci, Visiting Fellow
- Dr John Hoffmire, Research Associate
- Mr Mazi Zarrehparvar, Research Associate
- Ms Zulema Jimenez Perez, Administrator
CMCB works on a model of collaboration and partnership. Our key partners include:
Skoll Centre
Based at the Saïd Business School and led by Professor Marya Besharov the Skoll Centre is dedicated to fostering social entrepreneurship and systemic impact through research, education, and practical support for changemakers. The collaboration between the Centre on Mutual and Co-owned Business and Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship reflects a shared commitment to advancing innovative business models that drive social and economic change.
Rutgers University
Directed by Professor Joseph Blasi, the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University explores how employee ownership can broaden financial participation and create more resilient economies. We work together to promote business structures that empower employees and strengthen communities.
Simplyhealth
Simplyhealth was the Centre’s first corporate sponsor. It is a UK-based company focused on providing affordable healthcare solutions. As a company limited by guarantee, it has no external investors or shareholders. It operates on principles of mutuality, which involves benefiting its members rather than maximizing shareholder profit.
Employee Ownership Association
We are allied with the Employee Ownership Association, a UK-based, not-for-profit membership organisation that champions and supports the employee ownership sector.
Mutuo
We collaborate with Mutuo, a consultancy that works to educate the public and political spheres on the economic and societal benefits of mutuals.
Employee Share Ownership and Profit Sharing: A Global Phenomenon, Edited By Jonathan Michie, Joseph Blasi (December 29, 2025 by Routledge)
This book presents a comprehensive examination of employee share ownership, profit sharing, and gain sharing practices in contemporary business environments.
Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing: Models, Incidence, and Sectors, Edited By Jonathan Michie, Joseph Blasi (August 4, 2025 by Routledge)
This book explores a quiet revolution reshaping global capitalism: the rise of employee ownership, worker cooperatives, and profit-sharing enterprises.
Plurality, Stewardship and Engagement, Final Report of the Ownership Commission (March 2012)
A Complex Systems Model for Transformative Supply Chains in Emerging Markets Ruth Yeoman and Milena Mueller Santos (International Journal of Emerging Markets)
A Mutual Health Service – Report of a Parliamentary Seminar (2009)
A Review of the Empirical Literature on Meaningful Work: Progress and Research Agenda Katie Bailey, Ruth Yeoman, Adrian Madden, Gary Kerridge and Marc Thompson. (Human Resource Development Review. Winner of the 2019 Elwood F. Holton Research Excellence Award)
All of Our Business: Why Britain needs more private sector employee ownership – William Davies (Employee Ownership Association, 2012)
Becoming a Public Service Mutual: Understanding Transition and Change – Will Davies and Ruth Yeoman (Cooperative Group & Mutuo, 2013)
Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade – Will Davies & Cliff Mills (International Cooperative Alliance, 2012)
Business Ethics in East Asia: Examples in Historical Context – Chris Rowley & Ingyu Oh eds (Routledge, 2017)
Converting financial institutions into mutual organisations – Jonathan Michie and David Llewellyn (2009)
Employee ownership as a supercharged ‘all-party’ solution to bolster wealth Graeme Nuttall OBE (Bright Blue essay collection ‘A Wealth of Opportunities’, chapter 15)
Employee Ownership: Defusing the business succession time bomb in Wales – William Davies & Jonathan Michie (Wales Co-operative Centre, 2012)
Employee Share Ownership, Cadence Innova EMI – Craig Yugawa, John Hoffmire, Ewan Hall
Employee-owned companies perform better, but are resisted by banks, lawyers and governments – Jonathan Michie (thecoversation.com 2019)
Ethical and Social Marketing in Asia – Bang Nguyen & Chris Rowley (Chandos Publishing, 2015)
Ethics, Meaningfulness, and Mutuality Ruth Yeoman (Routledge Studies in Business Ethics)
From Traditional to Innovative Multi-Stakeholder Mutuals: The Case of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Ruth Yeoman (In: Blasi, Borzaga & Michie (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Cooperative and Mutual Business. Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Making Meaningful Cities Ruth Yeoman (Oxford Impact Case Studies)
Measuring corporate diversity in financial services: a diversity index, International Review of Applied Economics – Jonathan Michie & Christine Oughton
Measuring Mutuality: Indicators for Financial Mutuals – Jonathan Michie & Will Davies (Association of Financial Mutuals, 2012)
Mutual and Meaningful Ruth Yeoman. (Minds at Work. Fabian Society)
Mutual, Cooperative and Employee-Owned Businesses in the Asia Pacific: Diversity, Resilience and Sustainable Growth – Chris Rowley & Jonathan Michie eds (Routledge, 2015)
New Models of Ownership and Governance Cliff Mills and Ruth Yeoman (In: Webster, Shaw & Vorberg-Rugh (eds.) Cooperative Futures. Manchester University Press)
Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work Ruth Yeoman, Katie Bailey, Adrian Madden and Marc Thompson (Oxford University Press)
PEPPER V report prepared by the consortium of the Kelso Institute Europe at Berlin and Stiftung Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder):
- Chapter IV ‘EFP and the Rising Concentration of Capital Ownership and of Capital Income’ Joseph Blasi
- Chapter VIII ‘Towards a European Employee Stock Ownership Plan (European ESOP)’ Graeme Nuttall contributed with Jens Lowitzsch, John D. Menke, Denis Suarsana, Tej Gonza and Thibault Mirabel
- Country Report 28 – United Kingdom Graeme Nuttall, jointly with Jens Lowitzsch
Plurality, Stewardship & Engagement: The Report of the Ownership Commission (2012)
Promoting Corporate Diversity in the Financial Services Sector– Jonathan Michie (2010)
Reframing Building Societies and Mutual Insurers: Collaboration as a source of competitive advantage – Ruth Yeoman, Kellogg College, University of Oxford and Daniel Tischer, Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Oxford, 2016)
Reinventing The Firm– William Davies (Demos, 2009)
The Oxford Handbook of Cooperative and Mutual Business – Jonathan Blasi, Borzaga & Michie (eds.), Oxford University Press.
News: Winners announced for inaugural Nigel Mason Award
Find out about the event held to celebrate outstanding and sustained contributions to research on employee ownership.