Sustainability reporting and corporate identity: action research evidence in an Italian retailing cooperative

Cooperatives are facing the challenge to be competitive in the market, without losing their traditional values\r\nof mutuality and democracy. To do that, they need to re-construct open and participative dialogue with their\r\nemployees and members based on more democratic forms of communication and engagement. From this point\r\nof view, the measurement and communication of sustainability aspects may allow a dialogue to be mobilized\r\nwith shareholders and stakeholders without losing the attention on competitive factors. Based on these\r\npremises, the article analyses the experience of a 5-year action research project (from 2006 to mid-2011),\r\ncarried out within Unicoop Tirreno, an Italian consumers’ cooperative, and aimed to implement different tools\r\nfor sustainability accounting and to embrace a more open dialogue with stakeholders, in particular with\r\nemployees and members. In this process of change, the tools implemented for sustainability accounting played\r\na key role in supporting the cooperative to reinterpret its own values and in stimulating a new and participative\r\nmanagement approach. The results indicate a virtuous circle between the management and measurement of\r\ncooperative principles and the management and measurement of sustainability issues.