Cooperatives are a key part of global economy employing some 10% of the world´s working population and they have been identified as focal vehicles of sustainability transitions by researchers and societal stakeholders alike. However, we have limited understanding of cooperative sustainability impact because transition studies have focused on small organizations on emerging sectors and management studies have all but neglected the organizational form. SUSTRACOOP conceptualizes the role of cooperatives in promoting or inhibiting sustainability transitions. The project integrates existing literature with new knowledge derived from empirical work packages that focus on three scarcely studied topics: the comparative sustainability impact between corporations and cooperatives, the change of cooperative sustainability with growth and the conditions leading to positive/negative cooperative sustainability impact.

2026

2029