Co-operative firms as perceived by external stakeholders: how do consumers perceive organizational tensions?

International audienceTensions which occur in hybrid organizations as cooperative firms have not been investigated from an external point of view. In this communication we propose to consider the consumer perception of those tensions, as factor of organization survival. Two qualitative studies (a projective study conducted with 10 consumers, asked to distinguish between capitalist firms and cooperatives, and a study using 20 in-depth interviews) underlined that (1) consumers perceive the decision-making complexity, the limited innovation level, and the limited investments in the same way than the internal stake-holders; (2) they elaborate inverse associations in terms of internal collaboration and skills; (3) they consider a new dimension of tension: the production elaboration level. To conclude, we emphasize that, among those tensions, the decision-making complexity is the most critical from the consumer point of view because it limits the perceived size of the firm and thus, the range of credible products supplied by cooperatives.La perception des coopératives par les parties prenantes externes: le regard des consommateurs sur les tensions organisationnelles