The Role of Healthy and Economic Competent Co-operatives in Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Existing literature on cooperatives reveals gaps in understanding the relationship between cooperative performance, governance, and principles. This study addresses this gap by employing a systematic literature review (SLR) approach, following the PRISMA method (Jamaluddin et al., 2023). The review argues that cooperatives play a crucial role in reorganizing economies and establishing new social orders, which can counterbalance the negative impacts of both the state and private sectors. This highlights the importance of Cooperative Principal No. 7 (Concern for Community) and all other cooperative principles, emphasizing their role in fostering inclusive and sustainable development through healthy, economically competent cooperatives. However, despite the principles’ potential, many cooperatives remain unhealthy, function suboptimally, and lack economic competence, with their challenges not fully explained by these principles. The study suggests that the low capabilities of cooperatives in promoting inclusive and sustainable development can be attributed to several unresolved issues: Inadequate interaction mechanisms between cooperative principles and genotypic units, a lack of scientifically and humanistically informed cooperative identity, as well as the absence of a distinct causal model for cooperative performance measurement and management.