The most developed countries in the world have been and are highly associative, that is, most of their inhabitants have associative capacity (the ability to establish relationships with strangers, to do things with strangers based on common objectives). The French lawyer Alexis de Tocqueville, was the first to coin the word associativity when describing in his book "Democracy in America" (1835) the associative ability of North Americans in the following way:
"North Americans associate to give parties, found seminaries, establish shelters, build churches, send missionaries to the antipodes and also create hospitals, prisons and schools"
Tocqueville points out that in the associative practices that occurred in North America at that time (1835), individuals are, on the one hand, independent of each other, that is, they are not linked by ties of affection, consideration or dominance, and on the other that They are weak, that is, they require each other.
"The associative capacity requires that no one is in a position to compel another, or to be compelled by another, but at the same time it requires that no one is in a position to be fully self-reliant and that the participation of others is very necessary"
The Venezuelan engineer Ramón rosales from SELA (speaker of the Latin American Economic System) defines associativity as follows:
"It is a cooperation mechanism between small and medium-sized companies, where each participating company maintains its legal independence and managerial autonomy, voluntarily decides to participate in a joint effort with other participants in the search for a common goal." Here are some associative models specified by Mariela Iguera from Buenos Argentina in "Associativity in SMEs" and examples of possible applications in Honduras raised by the researcher:
a) Subcontracting modality
Micro and small companies that focus their productive participation towards large clients; for example: a group of cotton producing companies that are associated voluntarily, without losing their legal independence and managerial autonomy to strengthen the bargaining power with the buyers of this product. When it comes to legal independence, it means that each participant is responsible for the quality of the product and the conditions for its delivery to its client; Managerial autonomy means that each participant makes the decisions that best suit them about the use of their most valuable resources, without having to account to their colleagues with whom they participate in order to achieve a goal of common benefit.
b) Type of business nuclei
They are teams of entrepreneurs from the same or different areas with problems to overcome in common, who come together to share experiences and seek solutions together, for example: shoe manufacturers from Comayaguela who come together to incorporate new technologies into their industry, manage the opening of new markets, fight against unfair competition due to the proliferation of sale of used footwear in Honduras, strengthen the bargaining power before the government in the management of flexible financing since micro-credit at the private level is very expensive and always alert to any threat. Emphasizing all associative modalities as in a), on the legal independence and managerial autonomy of the participants.
c) Service network mode
They are groups of people from the same profession but with different specialties, or a group of institutions that organize an interdisciplinary work team to meet the needs of potential clients, for example: home health care services by specialist doctors; association of workshops from different technical branches to provide home painting service, home electrical repair service, plumbing or upholstery, organized as a team to meet these needs according to the type of service requested.
d) Common purchasing modality
They are groups of companies that need the acquisition of raw materials or similar services (market studies, consultancies, etc.), which meet to increase the bargaining power before suppliers, for example: leather processing entrepreneurs, meet to make joint purchases of raw materials and supplies in large volumes, or to hire consulting services to implement effective sales strategies, in order to reduce costs and make your industry more competitive.
e) Export group modality
Several companies in the same sector come together to undertake an export project together, and have an advisor or coordinator who gives them the guidelines to follow to sell their products jointly abroad. Through this strategy, management costs, access to market information, promotion and marketing costs are reduced, greater negotiating power and a consolidated commercial image are achieved before their clients, for example: The artisanal shrimp entrepreneurs of the South zone of Honduras, could be grouped to export this product jointly to Japan, USA, Europe or other markets; the women's groups producing ecological paper in the Department of Paradise could do the same.
According to South American exhibitors on the subject, they argue that associativity in a few words is: COOPETENCE, that is to say that among the participants of an associative group, there is cooperation but at the same time competition. There is peace and war at the same time. If I cannot attend an entire order, another member of the group complements it and vice versa. This is widely observable in Japan among auto parts manufacturers (subcontracting mode) for firms such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc. Among the most associative countries in the world are Sweden, Finland, Denmark, England, USA among other developed countries; in Latin America it is Uruguay. According to the World Bank, the aforementioned countries have the highest social trust rates in the world.
The Chileans Eduardo Valenzuela and Carlos Causiño of the Directorate of Sociological Studies of the Catholic University of Chile in their study "Associativity and Sociability", define social trust as follows:
“Trust is an attitude that is validated in relationships with strangers, it is based and guaranteed mainly on an ethic of individual responsibility, and that in turn rests on the fact that everyone fulfills and respects the promises and commitments that they have declared in front of others ”.
If there is no acceptable level of social trust among the members of a group of entrepreneurs, it will hardly be possible to associate, so it is necessary for it to be induced by a promoter, be it governmental or private (NGO).
According to José Stalin Rojas from the University of Colombia, associativity has been the most powerful strategy found by smaller companies to face the changes generated by globalization and to be able to survive in unequal competition.
Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in most Latin American countries are the largest generators of employment, and are the growth engine of any country. In Peru they represent 98% of the total number of companies and 80.7% of the economically active employed population. Therefore, Latin American governments must pay special attention to this important sector of the economy of their respective countries, promoting or inducing associativity to develop in them a culture of cooperation in industrial networks, whether horizontal or vertical, thus achieving the main objectives of associativity: 1. to share risk and 2. to decrease costs. With the above (1 and 2), an economy of scale is sought for micro and small entrepreneurs, thereby improving competitiveness,since the current problem in these is that they are not competitive and in each of the Latin American countries the main problem is unemployment.
Thank you very much for your attention in this regard.
