Sustainability performance evaluation of agricultural cooperatives’ operations: a systemic review of the literature

Abstract

The article proposes to construct and analyze the research landscape on the sustainability performance evaluation of agricultural cooperatives' operations. The research was characterized as a systematic review of the literature, carried out through the ProKnow-C structured process, complemented by a procedure known as Snowball to form the portfolio of articles, theses and dissertations to be studied. The research results highlight models for the evaluation of the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives' operations that are still under construction. There are few studies that explain what a performance evaluation is, and there are no authors who have stood out in the research on this theme. Most sustainability assessment models for cooperatives do not address the three dimensions of sustainability in an integrated way, and the uniqueness of the decision maker is not proposed, since there is a predominance of Normativistic and Descriptive approaches. Mapping and organizing the body of knowledge on the theme of sustainability in agricultural cooperatives in the topic of performance evaluation is the main contribution of the article, since many previous studies did not address this. To that end, a conceptual map that outlines the thematic categories of sustainability performance evaluation of agricultural cooperatives' operations was constructed, identifying where future research is needed, both for the construction of new theories and models and for the execution of empirical studies.

Assessing Impacts of CAP Subsidies on Financial Performance of Enterprises in Slovak Republic

“…Cooperative organizations are emerging by having a philosophy that prioritizes collective rights over individual rights. Currently, cooperativeness can be found in several branches of economic activity, yet there is a great adhesion of cooperativeness in the agricultural sector [49]. From the point of view of time series Sustainability 2020, 12, 948 6 of 18 analysis, the work focuses on the period from 2005 to 2014, since a final and complete database of data was available for this period.…”

Agricultural cooperatives remaining competitive in a globalised food system: At what cost to members, the cooperative movement and food sustainability?

“…In their systemic review of the literature of the models of evaluation of the sustainability performance of agricultural cooperatives' operations, Marcis and colleagues identified that, as with performance indicators, most sustainability evaluation models for cooperatives do not address sustainability in an integrated way, with a predominance of economic and social aspects and a neglect for environmental dimensions (Matthews et al, 2016;Marcis et al, 2018). The quest for more efficient, cost effective and faster processes displace efforts on bigger questions such as those related to biodiversity, depletion of natural resources and power imbalances.…”

Essays on co-operatives’ idiosyncrasies : structure, performance, and membership

“…Phase 1 findings suggest that, despite the dominance of two business subcategories (i.e., BFA and BEA) in empirical co-op performance research, the Chapter 3 contributes to co-op literature by delivering a comprehensive dashboard for co-op performance assessment which mirrors the co-op organizational form idiosyncrasies and harmonizes business-social aspects. It supplements past systematic reviews on co-op performance (e.g., Marcis et al, 2018;Sexton and Iskow, 1993;Soboh et al, 2009;Van Herck, 2014) and advances the debate on how to best appraise it. Moreover, the interdisciplinary results of Actually, Chapter 3 helps co-ops to quantify their socio-economic impact consistently and, thereby, render their contribution to sustainable development more visible.…”

“…Third, the importance of agricultural co-ops has also been manifested by the marked attention they have received in academic literature (Höhler and Kühl, 2014). A significant advance of theoretical work has taken place in the last decades LeVay, 1983;Staatz, 1989;Valentinov and Iliopoulos, 2013), while studies on the performance of agricultural co-ops have enjoyed a long empirical tradition (Marcis et al, 2018;Soboh et al, 2009;Van Herck, 2014).…”

“…For example, although sustainability reporting is increasingly a default practice of organizations worldwide (Mura et al, 2018;Truant et al, 2017), the vast majority of co-ops do not prepare any sustainability reports (ICA, 2016). Interestingly, while the subject of business performance assessment continues to top the academic and practitioner agenda (Beer and Micheli, 2018;Bititci et al, 2012) (Benos et al, 2016;Chibanda et al, 2009;Kalogeras et al, 2013;Marcis et al, 2018). In other words, the need for conceptual and empirical consolidation of research on the issue of co-op performance measurement remains pertinent (Brown and Novkovic, 2015).…”