Cooperative Performance - Is There a Dilemma?

Cooperative businesses have a wider range of objectives than investor-owned firms from which to legitimately choose, some of which include difficult-to-quantify member-centered goals. This paper reviews a technique adopted in the measurement of stakeholders' aspirations and perceived performance for ten agricultural cooperatives and farmer controlled businesses. Findings indicate that cooperative stakeholders embrace a range of member- and corporate-centered aspirations, although the various stakeholding groups may prioritize these alternative goals differently. Importantly, an examination of the relationship between member- and corporate-centered performance levels indicates that the achievement of one is not necessarily at the expense of the other