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A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organisations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal. Consortium is a Latin word, meaning 'partnership, association or society' and derives from consors 'partner', itself from con- 'together' and sors 'fate', meaning owner of means or comrade.
Economics
Each participant retains its separate legal status and the consortium's control over each participant is generally limited to activities involving the joint endeavor, particularly the division of profits. A consortium is formed by contract, which delineates the rights and obligations of each member.
Consortia are more common in the nonprofit sector. For example, Five Colleges, Inc. is one of the oldest and most successful consortia in the United States. The participants in Five Colleges, Inc. are: Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Another example of a successful consortium is the Five Colleges of Ohio of Ohio: Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Kenyon College, College of Wooster and Denison University. These consortia have pooled the resources of their member colleges and the university to share human and material assets as well as to link academic and administrative resources.
An example of a for-profit consortium is Airbus Industrie ("Airbus"). Formed in 1970, Airbus is one of the world's premier manufacturers of civilian airliners. Airbus is owned by EADS (80%) and British Aerospace (20%). EADS itself is a merger of Aérospatiale-Matra of France, Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace of Germany, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas of Spain, which were originally separate partners in the consortium, owning 37.9%, 37.9%, and 4.2%, respectively. Airbus' status as a consortium means that profits accrue to the partner companies representative to their interests. Work is allocated on the same basis as profits.
Another example of a for-profit consortium is when a group of banks colloborate to give a loan. This is more commonly known as a syndicated loan. A more permanent joint activity is usually called an institute.
In several common law countries (including the United States), the word 'consortium' refers to the sexual services provided by one's spouse, which can be lost necessitating an award of damages; if a man's wife dies early due to misdiagnose, he may sue for loss of consortium. Likewise if a woman's husband is unable to provide sexual gratification due to medical malpractice or negligence, she may be awarded compensation. These lawsuits must be joined to any suit the spouse instituted to recover for his or her personal injuries. v. Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, Inc., N.C. (1980)
Famous consortiums
- World Wide Web Consortium
- The Open Group
- Six Companies builder of Hoover Dam (aka Boulder Dam)
- Freeview Consortium - British Digital terrestrial television service
- Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation
- SEMATECH
Other uses
- in Roman Catholic devotion, Consortium and consortium fraternitatis ware some of the many names of Purgatorial societies.
- The consortium magistorum included the Magistri (professors), notably ath the Parisian Sorbonne those of theology, law, medicine and arts (philosophy).
See also
- Consortium imperii (Roman sharing of imperial power)
- Cooperative
- Joint venture
- Patent pool
Sources and external links
(incomplete)
- passim
- ConsortiumInfo.org
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"Consortium"