Revisión Sistemática del Concepto Gobernanza Cooperativa

This paper aims to identify the conception of “cooperative governance” and its particularities. For this, a documentary-based research through the systematic descriptive review of literature, identifying the main research works on this subject that have been carried out in the last 15 years. The conducted result is the scarcity of literature available found and the absence in its theoretical frameworks of a conceptual definition of cooperative governance. This paper looks for the term “cooperative governance”, which differs from “governance in cooperatives” or “governance for cooperatives”. The first one refers to a specific model of governance (the cooperative), while the last two refer to the implementation of “governance”, usually assimilated to corporate governance, in cooperative organisations. The literature reviewed was found in journals on management and business administration, while no related literature was found in specialized journals on cooperativism. At the same time, another result of this research is the fact that most articles reviewed focus on the application of the principles of corporate governance to the cooperative management model, especially to consumer cooperatives, but no research was found in relation to worker cooperatives. Thus, it is evident that, for management research, cooperative governance is a fertile field of study. It is important to emphasize the need for deeper theoretical analysis and empirical research to delve into this field and generate valuable social knowledge about cooperative governance.