Abstract
This thesis explores the relationship between ownership structure (cooperative versus investorowned), market strategies as well as financial performance and risk. It tackles three databases in three different sectors: (1) French SMEs, (2) French wine sector (3) and financial institutions in the USA, along with a comparative methodology using empirical data. It contributes to the existing literature through a transversal approach between marketing and finance, in the framework of cooperatives with significant samples of data.Results show that cooperatives have lower levels of financial performance (except thrifts) with lower financial risk (except credit unions) compared to investor-owned firms; cooperatives have higher level of capitalization allowing them to face economic crises. Moreover, cooperatives adopt different market strategies. Research in the wine sector show that cooperatives tend to choose collective branding whereas investor-owned firms prefer private brands. As for financial institutions, business lines and relationship lending approaches vary according to ownership structures. In terms of the relationship between ownership structure and market strategies on one hand, and financial performance and risk on the other, results show that market strategies can affect financial performance while the main factor reducing the risk is cooperative structure.