Book excerpt: This book analyses community-owned businesses in countries around the world to show successful approaches and important strategies to improve access to essential services in vastly different economic contexts. Through eleven chapters, authors from various countries use case studies and analyse findings in ways which can be applied to new development initiatives, including rural grocery store retention in Kansas, socially responsible community cooperatives in Italy, preserving pubs and shops in England and Wales, serving residents with special needs in Canada, and financing basic goods and services for aging populations in Taiwan, plus other examples. The chapters explore practices and approaches used in various locations to address concerns about loss of access to essential services, making clear that this approach to financing is useful in different scenarios. The chapters provide key insights suggesting that these approaches will be even more prevalent in the future and will be of interest to students, scholars, and community-development practitioners around the world.