Here are some impertinent scenarios.

Young people fresh out of university set up a cooperative as a venture business. Neighborhood supermar-kets set up a small merchant cooperative and outdo the so-called "super-supermarkets" in their marketing. They even set the goal of taking over E-Mart in ten years' time. Ten thousand citizens put up one million each to form a cooperative building a wind power facility in the waters off Yeong-jong Island. Workers take over a company facing a management crisis and make a new beginning as a workers' cooperative. The newly formed "Agricultural Cooperative Bank" sets up a social responsibility and cooperative fund, allowing its to play the role of safety valve for cooperative ventures.

If a cooperative were a joint stock company, most of the major customers would be shareholders. Imagine that the customers of HomePlus were shareholders in the company. There would be a clear difference in terms of customer loyalty, participation, and motivation in buying HomePlus products. It is also every corporate manager's dream to have such a loyal group of customers. But joint stock companies can only imitate and never duplicate a membership like that of a co-op.