Towards a framework for formulating cooperative strategy

This chapter develops a framework for formulating a cooperative strategy given the cooperative’s mission, objectives, and external environment. Despite extensive research detailing the diversity of cooperative equity rights and governance, a similar discussion of how internal characteristics support the cooperative strategy has not been discussed. We conjecture that a cooperative’s internal characteristics (governance, ownership, and performance measures) should be supportive or adapted to the cooperative strategy to create and capture value for members. However, many cooperatives have preserved their internal characteristics even though their strategy has shifted, which may be detrimental to long-term performance. Cooperative stakeholders can formulate and evaluate their cooperative’s strategy using the framework we outline.