The first part of his paper aims to analyze how French Cooperative groups have been able to adapt their organization, their status and their business model to survive in a competitive environment, until the financial crisis. More precisely, they’ve been able to benefit by the evolutions in “cooperative law”, in order to lower their constraint of financing, and to increase the scope of their activity, becoming then “large banking groups”. Simultaneously, these groups have tried to developed a typical model of governance, characterized at the same time by an internal control, partly dedicated to the members, but more and more transferred to the top of the oraganizational pyramid, and partly to the stockholders (the new stakeholders coming from the existence of listed vehicles ). They’ve also been able to adapt and resist to some threatening evolutions in the international regulatory and accounting rules, sometimes by using “a lobbying network”. Whereas this development and business model could appear as a comparative advantage before the financial crisis (the so called “sub-primes crisis”)and were synonymous with efficiency, it seems now that the hybridization of the cooperative model has been the source of conflicts of interest, of a weakness in the strategy and an incentive to increase risk.
Then, the second part of this paper aims to examine how and why these comparative advantages have become a burden, and whether all the French Cooperative Banking Groups have suffered from the crisis in a similar way, or whether different organizational and strategic features or choices may explain a different level of resilience during these huge financial turmoil.

References: BERGER A.N & L.J MESTER (1997), “Inside the Black Box : what explains Differencies in the Efficiencies of Financial Organizations”, Journal of Banking and Finance n° 21, pp 895-947. CHARREAUX, DESBRIERES (1998) “Gouvernance des entreprises : valeur partenariale contre valeur actionnariale”, Finance Contrôle Stratégie n°2, juin 1998, p.57-88 DETILLEUX J.C., NAETT C. (2005), “Les coopératives face aux normes comptables internationales, le cas de l’IAS 32”, Revue Internationale de l’Economie Sociale (RECMA), n°295, février DRAPERI J.F (2005), L’économie sociale : utopies, pratiques, principes, Presses de l’Economie Sociale, 125 p. EACB (2006), « EACB Resolution on IAS 32 », Groupement Européen des Banques Coopératives, Brussels, december. EACB (2007), « The Discussion on Loan-Loss Absorption Approach, memo, GEBC, Brussels, 23 avril EMMONS W.R & SCHMID F.A (2000), «Bank Competition and Concentration : Do Credit Unions matter ? », Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis Paper, May-June. ESPAGNE F. (2004) “Outils de financement des coopératives en capitaux propres ou équivalents: analyse des lois françaises et comparaison avec un échantillon de lois nationales”, communication au Séminaire Juridique de GNC, Paris, 23 novembre GURTNER E., JAEGER M & ORY J.N (2009), “Les innovations organisationnelles dans les groupes bancaires coopératifs français: soumission ou résistance à la norme dela valeur actionnariale?”, Revue Française de Gestion, n° 190, Janvier HANSMANN H. (1985), “The Organization of Insurance Companies : Mutual versus Stocks”, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Vol 1, n° 1, pp 125-53 HANSMANN H. et R. KRAAKMAN (2000) “The End of History for Corporate Law” Harvard Discussion Paper n°280 HIEZ D. (2005), “Les instruments de fonds propres des coopératives: vingt ans d’évolution législative”, RECMA, Revue internationale de l’Economie sociale, n°295, février 2005 HIPSZMAN (2004) “Le financement du développement de l’économie sociale en France : la problématique fonds propres”, Séminaire sur la finance pour l’économie sociale en Europe à Bruxelles, 22 et 23 Avril “Les banques coopératives en France : le défi de la performance et de la solidarité”, RICHEZ-BATTESTI et GIANFALDONI dir., L’Harmattan, Paris, 2006. LHOMME, QUERE (1999) “La participation des banques coopératives et mutualistes”, Revue Banque et Stratégie n° 157, février ORY J.N, JAEGER M. et GURTNER (2006) “La banque à forme coopérative peut-elle durablement soutenir la compétition avec la banque S.A ?”, Finance Contrôle Stratégie, juin O’SULLIVAN (2002) “Le rôle du marché boursier dans les systèmes nationaux de gouvernance”, Revue française de Gestion, n°141, nov-déc SOULAGE F. (2000), “Les fonds propres des cooperatives : analyse et propositions”, ESFIN-IDES, mai TURNBULL, MACQUARIE (2000) “The competitive advantages of stakeholder mutuals “, Working Paper, 12th Annual Meeting on Socio-Economics, London School of Economics, Network H, Markets and Institutions