Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Cooperatives in Mexico City
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsInteresting research work presented. It is a work of descriptive analysis that lacks the support of concrete data.
Among the few data provided, there is a lack of recent data. The most substantive part of the paper focuses on the increase in the creation of cooperatives in 2015. In fact, it states "This is evidenced by the substantial increase in cooperative formations since 2015", although no specific data is given. This reference is from 7 years ago. The current situation and the number of cooperatives that may have been created since 2015 is not known, which would give us an insight into the usefulness of the ecosystem promotion described by the author.
The description of the interaction of the elements that foster ecosystems for the development of cooperativism in Mexico City does not seem to allow statements such as those contained between lines 489 and 493. The author takes for granted assertions that are not supported by any of the data he has presented in his descriptive analysis. These sentences, I believe, should be put in the conditional, or, as the case may be, provide verifiable evidence of their certainty: "the interconnections within the ecosystem enable cooperatives to contribute to environmental protection and uphold the preservation of local traditions and culture within their communities. They also foster the advancement of the social economy and cooperative principles, while providing support for entrepreneurial ventures and enhancing the skills and professionalism of their members".
The paragraph between lines 515 and 519: "The relationships between the academy and the cooperatives within the ecosystem have allowed the generation of new knowledge and skills and the creation of a learning space for various actors. This initiative has empowered the production sector significantly". It is not clear to me whether he is referring to the subject of the exhibition, Mexico City, or whether these are generic statements.
It is not clear to me whether under Mexican law savings cooperatives can have legal persons as clients. Line 372 states that "they are only authorised to make transactions between natural persons". If so, the statement in line 556 "We attribute it to the lack of savings and loan cooperatives in Mexico City" for the promotion of a cooperative ecosystem in Mexico City does not make sense.
Author Response
Comment 1: Among the few data provided, there is a lack of recent data. The most substantive part of the paper focuses on the increase in the creation of cooperatives in 2015. In fact, it states "This is evidenced by the substantial increase in cooperative formations since 2015", although no specific data is given. This reference is from 7 years ago. The current situation and the number of cooperatives that may have been created since 2015 is not known, which would give us an insight into the usefulness of the ecosystem promotion described by the author.
Response 1: To support the idea of the ecosystem's importance, we add data from programs from 2015 to 2023 in lines 178-181 and 296-303. We also add Figure 2 in line 304.
Comment 2: The description of the interaction of the elements that foster ecosystems for the development of cooperativism in Mexico City does not seem to allow statements such as those contained between lines 489 and 493. The author takes for granted assertions that are not supported by any of the data he has presented in his descriptive analysis. These sentences, I believe, should be put in the conditional, or, as the case may be, provide verifiable evidence of their certainty: "the interconnections within the ecosystem enable cooperatives to contribute to environmental protection and uphold the preservation of local traditions and culture within their communities. They also foster the advancement of the social economy and cooperative principles, while providing support for entrepreneurial ventures and enhancing the skills and professionalism of their members".
Response 2: We added a reference where evidence from this affirmation can be found. You can see that change in line 526.
“As shown in previous analyses (Díaz de León et al., 2021), the interconnections within the ecosystem enable cooperatives to contribute to environmental protection and uphold the preservation of local traditions and culture within their communities. They also foster the advancement of the social economy and cooperative principles, while providing support for entrepreneurial ventures and enhancing the skills and professionalism of their members.”
Comment 3: The paragraph between lines 515 and 519: "The relationships between the academy and the cooperatives within the ecosystem have allowed the generation of new knowledge and skills and the creation of a learning space for various actors. This initiative has empowered the production sector significantly". It is not clear to me whether he is referring to the subject of the exhibition, Mexico City, or whether these are generic statements.
Response 3: In line 556, we have improved the paragraph to express better which subject we are referring to.
“The relationships between the academy and the cooperatives within the ecosystem have allowed the generation of new knowledge and skills and the creation of a learning space for various actors (Aguilera and Reye, 2016; Camargo, Contreras and Jiménez, 2017; Paz, and Lebrero, 2016; Phillips, Lee, Ghobadian, O'Regan and James, 2015). These relationships have empowered the production sector significantly.”
Comment 4: It is not clear to me whether under Mexican law savings cooperatives can have legal persons as clients. Line 372 states that "they are only authorised to make transactions between natural persons". If so, the statement in line 556 "We attribute it to the lack of savings and loan cooperatives in Mexico City" for the promotion of a cooperative ecosystem in Mexico City does not make sense.
Response 4: In lines 593-594, we have improved the paragraph to express the idea better.
“We attribute this to the lack of legislation enabling savings and loan cooperatives to contribute to strengthening other cooperatives in Mexico City”
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis paper depicts an important topic of creating, integrating, and maintaining an ecosystem of an emerging industry. However, some enhancements are required for enlightening the incubation processes of consolidating an ecosystem.
1. The integration mechanisms among key actors in the ecosystem are crucial to an emerging industry. Therefore, to identify the main types of interactions among key actors could reveal the essences of system integration. As shown as Figure 2, every arrow shot from each actor means one type of interaction. Thus, several arrows started from an actor and pointed to different targeted actors may mean different kinds of interactions, playing as different integration mechanisms. So, the current status of Figure 2 indicates different actors with different colors because of different roles, while the arrows started from each actor with the same color. If possible, to indicate each arrow with a purposeful color may classify the main kinds of interactions, such as the money flow, the information flow, the technology flow, the market opportunities, and so on. Therefore, the readers will be likely to realize the integration processes. Moreover, the arrow thickness may indicate the relative proportion of interaction, standing for the network density of an ecosystem.
2. The abbreviation of key word should define clearly for readers to understand what they stand for. For example, does the “Program of Promotion, Constitution and Strengthening of Social and Solidarity Enterprises in Mexico City” abbreviate as FOCOFESS? I can’t find the word which had been abbreviated by “F”. The same problem occurs when Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion is abbreviated by STyFE. Especially, Cooperative Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Mexico City (EEC- CDMX), the key actor in this paper shown at line 231, could not be understood what “CD” stood for.
3. The formulation, development, and brewing processes of an ecosystem often require initiatives launched by key actors. I believe that NODESS, standing for Nodes to Promote the Social and Solidarity Economy (it is really the same question as item 2), should be the player, the network centrality of EEC- CDMX. If possible, articulating the relative importance and delineating the succession of integration.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThis paper depicts an important topic of creating, integrating, and maintaining an ecosystem of an emerging industry. However, some enhancements are required for enlightening the incubation processes of consolidating an ecosystem.
1. The integration mechanisms among key actors in the ecosystem are crucial to an emerging industry. Therefore, to identify the main types of interactions among key actors could reveal the essences of system integration. As shown as Figure 2, every arrow shot from each actor means one type of interaction. Thus, several arrows started from an actor and pointed to different targeted actors may mean different kinds of interactions, playing as different integration mechanisms. So, the current status of Figure 2 indicates different actors with different colors because of different roles, while the arrows started from each actor with the same color. If possible, to indicate each arrow with a purposeful color may classify the main kinds of interactions, such as the money flow, the information flow, the technology flow, the market opportunities, and so on. Therefore, the readers will be likely to realize the integration processes. Moreover, the arrow thickness may indicate the relative proportion of interaction, standing for the network density of an ecosystem.
2. The abbreviation of key word should define clearly for readers to understand what they stand for. For example, does the “Program of Promotion, Constitution and Strengthening of Social and Solidarity Enterprises in Mexico City” abbreviate as FOCOFESS? I can’t find the word which had been abbreviated by “F”. The same problem occurs when Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion is abbreviated by STyFE. Especially, Cooperative Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Mexico City (EEC- CDMX), the key actor in this paper shown at line 231, could not be understood what “CD” stood for.
3. The formulation, development, and brewing processes of an ecosystem often require initiatives launched by key actors. I believe that NODESS, standing for Nodes to Promote the Social and Solidarity Economy (it is really the same question as item 2), should be the player, the network centrality of EEC- CDMX. If possible, articulating the relative importance and delineating the succession of integration.
Author Response
Comment 1: The integration mechanisms among key actors in the ecosystem are crucial to an emerging industry. Therefore, to identify the main types of interactions among key actors could reveal the essences of system integration. As shown as Figure 2, every arrow shot from each actor means one type of interaction. Thus, several arrows started from an actor and pointed to different targeted actors may mean different kinds of interactions, playing as different integration mechanisms. So, the current status of Figure 2 indicates different actors with different colors because of different roles, while the arrows started from each actor with the same color. If possible, to indicate each arrow with a purposeful color may classify the main kinds of interactions, such as the money flow, the information flow, the technology flow, the market opportunities, and so on. Therefore, the readers will be likely to realize the integration processes. Moreover, the arrow thickness may indicate the relative proportion of interaction, standing for the network density of an ecosystem.
Response 1: We have improved the figure color to express the nature of the interactions between actors in the network. We have added a table describing the meaning of the different kinds of interactions that express the arrows. We have also changed the color of the nodes to distinguish them from the arrows. We have also added information about the interactions in the network in lines 478-486 and 494-502.
Comment 2: The abbreviation of key word should define clearly for readers to understand what they stand for. For example, does the “Program of Promotion, Constitution and Strengthening of Social and Solidarity Enterprises in Mexico City” abbreviate as FOCOFESS? I can’t find the word which had been abbreviated by “F”. The same problem occurs when Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion is abbreviated by STyFE. Especially, Cooperative Entrepreneurship Ecosystem of Mexico City (EEC- CDMX), the key actor in this paper shown at line 231, could not be understood what “CD” stood for.
Response 2: To avoid confusion in the redaction, we removed the abbreviation FOCOFESS, which does not match the program's long name. However, it is not a matter of the authors or the program's long name; it is the short name given to the program by the government agency.
In the case of the acronym STyFE, it is clarified that it refers to the Spanish name of the government agency “Secretaría del Trabajo y Fomento al Empleo”. We have clarified this in line 284.
The acronym EEC—CDMX refers to the Spanish name, as clarified in line 232.
In the case of the acronym CDMX, it is clarified that CDMX is the common abbreviation for "México City", CD refers to the acronym “City” in Spanish “Ciudad,” and MX refers to “México”
Also, we have clarified that other acronyms refer to the Spanish name like CONAHCYT (line 324), SIBISO (line 417), SECTEI (line 416), GICoops (line320), UPIICSA (line 411), OSSE (line 398).
Comment 3: The formulation, development, and brewing processes of an ecosystem often require initiatives launched by key actors. I believe that NODESS, standing for Nodes to Promote the Social and Solidarity Economy (it is really the same question as item 2), should be the player, the network centrality of EEC- CDMX. If possible, articulating the relative importance and delineating the succession of integration.
Response 3: In the case of the acronym NODESS, it is clarified that this refers to the Spanish name of the actor (line 201, 395).
We have improved the figure (line 449) to express better the nature of the interactions between actors in the network. We have also added information about the interactions in the network in lines 476-482 and 491-499.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors Good job and good luck