Members' Readership of Annual Reports - a Cross-National Comparison of Supply Co-operatives

This study investigates differences between supply co-operatives’ memberships as concerns readership of the annual reports. Two co-operatives are examined: Ravensdown, New Zealand, and Lantmännen, Sweden. As Lantmännen is larger, has integrated far downstream, and has a sizeable unallocated equity, it is expected that Lantmännen members are less involved than Ravensdown members. A postal survey was conducted among Lantmännen members, while information about Ravensdown was obtained from a secondary source. The results indicate that Lantmännen members read the annual report less than the Ravensdown members, express more ignorance when explaining their low readership, and consider annual reports to be less important