Sustainability Indicators: Information Asymmetry Mitigators between Cooperative Organizations and Their Primary Stakeholders

The research aims to identify indicators of representative information on sustainability from the cooperative organizations' primary stakeholders' perspective to mitigate information asymmetry. The study develops in seven stages: the primary stakeholders' selection and training; the evidence survey; the triangulation between stakeholder responses, forming an indicators list; the indicators analysis by specialists; tests for indicators disclosure; and the indicators validation through the disclosure analysis. As a result, a list contains 61 sustainability indicators from the primary stakeholders' perspective, in four pillars: economic, 20; social, 18; environmental, 13; and cultural, 10. With the cooperative organizations' websites disclosure analysis, we found that the disclosure policies focus more on information asymmetry mitigating in the pillars: cultural and social, with the environmental and economic being neglected. Therefore, the procedures for disclosing information on sustainability have weaknesses. These policies reduce the primary stakeholders' reliability about the cooperatives management system respective, limiting the primary stakeholders' perspective on the cooperative organization value.

Automated summary

This research identifies 61 sustainability indicators from the primary stakeholders' perspective through seven stages, covering economic, social, environmental, and cultural aspects. The disclosure policies of cooperative organizations focus more on cultural and social aspects to mitigate information asymmetry, neglecting the environmental and economic pillars. As a result, there are weaknesses in the procedures for disclosing information on sustainability, reducing the primary stakeholders' reliability and limiting their perspective on the cooperative organization value.