The "corporation" model works great for some sorts of pilot organizations. I'm thinking of Gradient, for example, and Hell's Librarians -- industrial corps, if you will. But for other organizations, such as political movements (e.g. ILF), military units (factional warfare), and cooperative individual pilots (pirates, explorers, traders, etc.), it breaks down rapidly.
Frankly, the "alliance" model works better for many things, if it weren't for that pesky 1b fee that's too expensive for many groups. Each individual corporation retains the ability to launch their own starbases, have hangars and wallets, etc., as well as issue contracts and market orders. Personally, I like the approach of "small pieces, loosely joined", where each pilot is relatively independent but supportive of each other. Alternately, an alliance could have many small corporations, where each "corp" is more or less analogous to what most folks currently consider a division.