Do French agrifood co-ops have a head start in Corporate Social Responsibility? An initial examination of French co-ops and their practices

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly widespread, research on how companies integrate it is still relatively scarce. The aim of this article is to analyse how the agrifood co-ops that invest in this process develop their economic, environmental and social sustainability. While cooperatives are undoubtedly companies that are part of the social and solidarity-based economy, does this make them inherently more responsible than commercial companies? Using a survey of existing reference sources and adopting Porter’s ‘shared value’ approach, we examine ISO 26000, the only international voluntary norm for CSR. Our hypothesis is that, if they are to ensure full commitment to CSR, these co-ops need to rethink their relations with all their stakeholders. Our methodology employs an original database of the concrete commitments of all the co-ops engaged in this reference framework completed by interviews. The results show that (1) greater proximity to consumers is a major motivation for them to innovate and adopt sustainability practices, thereby rendering (2) the distinction between large and small co-ops less significant. Our findings also suggest that in the absence of legal constraints, a local eco-system combining sustainable supply chains to create and share added value with all stakeholders could prove an effective incentive, with positive impacts on both global and local levels.