Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential

Morris Altman is Chair Professor of Behavioural and Institutional Economics and Co-operatives at the University of Dundee, United Kingdom, and former Inaugural Dean of Dundee University Business School. He has previously served as Dean at the University of Newcastle, Australia, Head of School at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and Head of Department at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Morris was a former visiting scholar at Cambridge, Canterbury, New Zealand, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Hebrew, Stirling, and Stanford University. He has published more than 130 refereed articles and 20 books in behavioural economics, institutional economics, cooperative studies, governance, and sustainable development. Professor Altman is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Behavioural Economics and has held leadership roles in numerous international academic and professional organizations, including Association for Social Economics the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics. He also served on research committees of the International Co-operative Alliance.

Akira Kurimoto is a Senior Fellow of the Japan Cooperative Alliance. He studied law at the University of Tokyo and has held senior positions in both academia and the cooperative sector, including Professor of Cooperative Programs at Hosei University's Institute for Solidarity-based Society and Manager of the Japanese Consumer Co-operative Union. Since 1998, he has served as Board Member and Chief Researcher of the Consumer Cooperative Institute of Japan. Professor Kurimoto has played a prominent international leadership role within the cooperative movement, serving as Chair of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) Research Committee, a member of the ICA Principles Committee, and currently Chair of the ICA Asia-Pacific Research Committee. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Cooperative Monitor. A founding member of the Asia Pacific Cooperative Research Partnership, he co-edited Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential (2020).

Robby Tulus is an internationally respected cooperative leader, development practitioner, and policy advisor. He is currently Special Advisor to the Indonesian-Canadian Congress (ICC) and is widely recognized as a pioneer of the modern credit union movement in Indonesia, having co-founded the movement in the late 1960s. He also founded the National Association of Socio-Economic Cadres and the INKUR Federation of Indonesia. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Tulus has held senior leadership positions with major international cooperative organizations, including the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions, the Canadian Co-operative Association, and the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), where he served as Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. He has also advised international organizations including CIDA, ILO, UNDP, and the Asian Development Bank, and was appointed ICA Special Envoy to oversee cooperative reconstruction initiatives following the Indian Ocean tsunami. His work has focused on cooperative development, capacity building, community resilience, and international cooperation.

Yashavantha Dongre, currently serving as Vice Chancellor of Chanakya University in Bengaluru, India, is a former Professor and Dean of Faculty of Commerce at the University of Mysore, India. He has been a researcher on cooperatives as well as a trainer and consultant supporting local cooperatives in India. He served as a member of the Committee to formulate the National Cooperative Policy in India in 2025. Recent publications to which he contributed chapters and served as editor/associate editor include Waking the Asian Pacific Cooperative Potential by Morris Altman, Anthony Jensen, Akira Kurimoto, Robby Tulus, Yashavantha Dongre & Seungkwon Jang (Elsevier 2020), and Exploring Asian Pacific Cooperatives in Theory and Practice by Morris Altman & Akira Kurimoto (Elsevier 2026).

Seungkwon Jang is Professor of Organization Theory in the Department of Management of Co-operatives and the Cooperative MBA Program at Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea. He received his PhD in Organization Theory from Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He currently serves as President of the Korean Society for Cooperative Studies, Chair of the Korea Fair Trade Towns Steering Committee, Vice-President of the Korea Association of International Development Cooperation, and Vice-President of the Korean Association of Human Resource Development. Professor Jang has edited several influential books, including The Management of Consumer Co-operatives in Korea: Identity, Participation and Sustainability (Routledge, 2019) and Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential (Academic Press, 2020). His research focuses on cooperative management, organizational innovation, human resource development, international development, fair trade, and the social economy. Through his scholarship and public engagement, he has contributed significantly to advancing cooperative research and practice throughout the Asia-Pacific region.