TY - THES ID - 148640706 TI - Croissance économique et esprit coopératif : analyse des coopératives agricoles en Belgique AU - Barbay, Juliette AU - Defourny, Jacques AU - Plateau, Lou AU - Maréchal, Kevin PY - 2019 PB - Liège Université de Liège (ULiège) DB - UniCat KW - esprit coopératif KW - coopératives agricoles KW - coopératives KW - identité coopérative KW - coopératives laitières KW - Sciences économiques & de gestion > Economie sociale UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:148640706 AB - The cooperative model is used all over the world. Cooperatives play an important role in the
economy worldwide and gather more than 1,2 billion members. Considering the social,
economical and environmental challenges, cooperatives can be a source of inspiration, a way to
reinvent the economy, putting the social projects and their members at the centre of their
organizations. This model shows us that it is possible to be socially responsible and economically
viable, at the same time.

Cooperatives play an important role in the agricultural sector, around the world. Farmers gather
in order to improve their conditions and be stronger together. However, they have evolved a lot
during the last decades, going from small traditional cooperatives into big international groups.

In this paper, we will study the economic growth of the agricultural cooperatives, and the impact
of it on their cooperative identity. We will attempt to answer the following question: does the
economic growth in agricultural cooperatives lead to the loss of their cooperative identity? We
will focus on the agricultural cooperatives in Belgium and we will study a subset of those, the
dairy cooperatives.

In order to address that question, we will start with a theoretical section. We will introduce the
cooperative model, its characteristics, principles and values. We will then dive into the
agricultural sector, and the pertaining cooperatives. We will study the evolution of those
agricultural cooperatives. After that, we will identify aspects of the cooperatives’ characteristics
that can be affected by those changes.

Afterwards, we will conduct our field research in the dairy sector. We will interview two
cooperatives, focusing on certain aspects: the cooperative project, governance, and their
remuneration system. We will then analyze and discuss the results, in order to answer our
question and draw a conclusion. ER -