The modalities of territorial embeddedness of french cooperative groups

The article aims to analyse the modalities followed by French coopera-tive groups seeking to implement a territorial embeddedness process. It will at-tempt to clarify issues relating to the significance of this territorial dimension along with cooperative groups‟ strategies and behaviour. The text starts with a brief literature review elucidating the notion of territorial embeddedness and dis-tinguishing it from the territorial circumscription, while presenting the specificities of this concept for cooperatives. It then processes national statistics databases and comes up with a spatial topology of French cooperative groups. The second sec-tion offers a set of indicators that can be used to measure and test territorial em-beddedness, validated by a survey of 15 of France‟s leading agricultural coopera-tive groups. We demonstrate that, along with geographic location and statutory perimeter of action, territorial embeddedness also reflects three other main criteria, to wit: where the agricultural cooperative runs its operations; where its members are located; and where they receive the outputs and services that they are offered. There is no doubt that cooperative groups construct territorial embeddedness on the basis of a joint activation of relationships with their members – but it is just as clear that this construction varies depending on the extent of a group‟s integration into particular branches and markets.