Measuring cooperative performance using organizational effectiveness and member participation

Organizational performance of cooperatives is traditionally and typically measured using economic and financial metrics, such as profitability and return on equity. Here we expand the concept of performance measurements of cooperatives beyond the usual economic and financial measures to a broader concept- organizational effectiveness. A selective review of the cooperative and non-cooperative literature that focuses on connecting member participation to the organizational effectiveness of cooperatives is presented. It is argued that a reciprocal relationship exists between member participation and organizational effectiveness where the latter forms a "currency" a la Benos et al. (2018) that rewards members to participate further.