ABSTRACT
Cooperative purchasing is not new – either in scientific research or in practical application. Historically, forms of cooperation and consortia in purchasing were first discussed by Mitchell (1927) and Gushée and Boffey (1928). According to Sanders and Knapp (1979), the first Ph.D. thesis on cooperative sourcing was written in 1969 at the University of Denver. According to Encarta (1999), cooperatives as we know them go back to the cooperation by the labour movement in the United Kingdom in the eighteenth century.
