What is the difference between a corporation and a cooperative?

Answer 1

The three main differences are in that corporations are set up to produce a good or service for the goods and services market, aims at making profit or is not for profit when product placement demands it and is run by people with assumed business acumen.

A cooperative is set up to facilitate the target group´s interests rather than profit or product placement and run by members of its target group.

A corporation is a legal personality, usually used to conduct business. Corporations exist as a product of corporate law, and their rules balance the interests of the shareholders that invest their capital and the employees who contribute their labour. People work together in corporations to produce. The defining feature of a corporation is its legal independence from the people who create it. If a corporation fails, shareholders will lose their money, and employees will lose their jobs, but neither will be liable for debts that remain owing to the corporation's creditors. This rule is called limited liability, and it is why corporations end with "Ltd." (or some variant like "Inc." and "plc").

A cooperative (also co-operative or coöperative; often referred to as a co-op or coop) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise[1]. A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it. Source: Wikipedia English March 16, 2011

By Sevastian