What does the 7th cooperative principle (concern for community) really mean?

Flávio Luiz Von Der Osten (), Tomas Sparano Martins (), Hao Dong () and Adrian R. Bailey ()
Additional contact information
Flávio Luiz Von Der Osten: Universidade Federal do Paraná Business School
Tomas Sparano Martins: Universidade Federal do Paraná Business School
Hao Dong: University of Southampton Business School, University of Southampton
Adrian R. Bailey: University of Exeter

Management Review Quarterly, 2025, vol. 75, issue 2, No 21, 1813-1838

Abstract: Abstract Cooperatives are an important organizational form that operate under seven principles (Voluntary and Open Membership; Democratic Member Control; Member Economic Participation; Autonomy and Independence; Education, Training, and Information; Cooperation among Cooperatives; Concern for Community). Concern for Community was the last formally stated cooperative principle in 1995, after decades of discussion within the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). The statement of this “new” principle has provoked questions for cooperatives and the cooperative movement more generally, regarding their definition, scope, and implementation. This article employs a systematic literature review to examine the academic understanding of Concern for Community that has emerged over the past 30 years. The review analyzes 32 academic journal articles from an initial dataset of 438 articles generated by a two-string search (“concern for community” and “cooperative principles”). Five themes are identified: cooperative principles, defining Concern for Community, adoption of Concern for Community, antecedents of Concern for Community, and outcomes. Comparing these themes with the normative instructions proposed by the ICA, the article develops a framework for future research. The review also finds that there is not an established clear difference between Concern for Community and corporate social responsibility in the extant literature, which carries the implication that constructs from the latter can be integrated into the analysis and development of the 7th principle.

Keywords: Concern for community; Cooperative organization; Corporate social responsibility; CSR; Principle; Systematic Literature Review (SLR) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11301-024-00421-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:manrev:v:75:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11301-024-00421-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11301

DOI: 10.1007/s11301-024-00421-4

Access Statistics for this article

Management Review Quarterly is currently edited by Thomas Reutterer, Jonas F. Puck, Engelbert Dockner and Anne d'Arcy

More articles in Management Review Quarterly from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().