The cooperatives' sources of efficiency: a catalyst for the emergence of localized norms

A large theoretical literature has identified the deficiencies of cooperatives and deduced they should disappear. However, the empirical literature has not confirmed a significantly lower level of efficiency for cooperatives. A survey of the empirical literature and new data on French cooperatives show that the theories were right but that their inferences were wrong, since they overlooked alternative sources of efficiencies. On one hand, difficulties of coordination occur due to cooperatives' lack of flexibility and rationalization. On the other hand, these deficiencies also foster the emergence of another source of efficiency, based on a deep knowledge of the activities by and between the actors.