Sustainability performance of agricultural cooperatives: A systematic literature review

Résumé En

The purpose of this research is to examine the sustainability performance of agricultural cooperatives. To this end, the article first provides elements to clarify the concept of sustainability performance as applied to agricultural cooperatives, and its scope. Then, we conduct a systematic review of the literature on agricultural cooperatives and identify 225 articles that consider at least one dimension of sustainability performance. To explore and analyze the information, we perform a bibliometric analysis. A synthetic model of cooperative sustainability performance is presented, showing the interactions between cooperatives and their members. As the concepts of sustainability and performance concepts are not clearly rooted in the literature by the authors, the content of sustainability performance varies across studies. The analysis highlights the dominance of governance and economic dimensions in characterizing the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives and their relationship with their members. In contrast, the social and environmental dimensions receive less attention. Overall, the sustainability performance of agricultural cooperatives remains a challenging issue. Therefore, our study suggests research perspectives to develop the sustainability performance of agricultural cooperatives.