Food coop as the height of the « consumer governmentality continuum » : discussion and avenues for research
(A2020-64760)

AUTHORS

Jeanne Albouy, ENSFEA - University of Toulouse; Alexandre Lapeyre, LGCO - Université Toulouse 3; Malas Ziad, Toulouse 3 ; Nathalie Maumon, LGCO - Université Toulouse 3

KEYWORDS

Food coop; Consumer cooperator; governance

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a discussion on the growing role of consumers in corporate governance. A typology of four consumerist figures is presented (the Opponent, the Responsible, the Co-creator and the Cooperator), where each type is considered as successive stage towards a complete and internalized takeover of the consumer. The special case of food cooperatives of consumers (food co-ops) is then considered as the most evolved form of governance by and for consumers. Since very little marketing work has examined the particular case of food co-ops, the second objective was to provide various lines of research to better identify the essence and the potential associated with these structures. To do so, we present a research agenda structured through three parts: consumer-cooperator, relationships with environment and commercial performance.