The Social Efficiency for Sustainability: European Cooperative Banking Analysis

Leire San-Jose (), Jose Luis Retolaza and Eric Lamarque
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Jose Luis Retolaza: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Economics Department, University of Deusto, 48014 Bilbo, Spain
Eric Lamarque: Management and the Governance of Financial Cooperatives (MGCF), Université Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, 75013 Paris, France

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: This paper seeks to establish the relationship between economic efficiency and social efficiency to analyze the sustainability of banking in Europe. The type-effect has been analyzed, as stakeholder value banks—cooperatives and saving banks—should not be less socially and economically efficient than commercial banks. This European analysis was made using the Bankscope database, as it provides a unique insight into the stakeholder view that clarifies, by an analysis of two-stage boundaries, that there is no single model of social and economic efficiency according to the type of financial entity in Europe. These findings contribute to the social cost paradox and shared value perspective, and more broadly to stakeholder theory. It is established that a tradeoff between economic and social efficiency is not needed. There are different behaviors in different European countries. Moreover, our results could lead to the development of social indicators of the sustainability aspects of organizations without resorting to traditional accounting.

Keywords: stakeholder theory; sustainability; risk; social efficiency; banking; cooperative banks; Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: The Social Efficiency for Sustainability: European Cooperative Banking Analysis (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:9:p:3271-:d:169557

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