Co-operative enterprises differ from other organizations since their values are influenced by historical co-operative principles set out by their pioneers, which leads to the establishment of a uniform value core across co-operatives that operate in different sectors. Despite their dense constitutive roots, co-operatives adapt to their environment as a means to survive and thrive, which influences their appearance vis-á-vis members and customers. Until now, an empirical comparison of co-operatives across sectors remained unexplored despite various sources that suggest that a uniform co-operative identity for co-operatives of different industries may exist. This article fills this gap by uncovering parallels and deviations in the perception of values of credit co-operatives, housing co-operatives as well as a mixed general group of co-operatives. To this end, a principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to condense the set of values of the co-operative industries to underlying factors. The findings uncover that the perception of co-operatives of different sectors can be reduced to congruent value cores, which for each sector comprise the subsequent three components: “responsible business conduct”, “regionality and tradition” and “economic soundness”. Furthermore, Austrian co-operatives differentiate themselves from other legal forms with regard to a number of characteristics that belong to these components.

合作社企业与其他组织不同，因为合作社企业的价值受其先驱者制定的历史合作社原则影响，这导致跨不同部门运营的合作社建立统一的价值核心。尽管合作社的构成根源深厚，但它们仍适应环境，以此作为生存和发展的手段，这会影响其相对于成员和客户的外观。到目前为止，尽管有各种来源表明对不同行业的合作社可能存在统一的合作社身份，但跨部门合作社的经验比较仍未得到探索。本文通过揭示信贷合作社，住房合作社以及混合型合作社的总体价值观念之间的相似之处和偏差来填补这一空白。为此，应用主成分分析（PCA）将合作产业的价值集合浓缩为潜在因素。调查结果发现，可以将不同部门的合作社的看法简化为一致的价值核心，对于每个部门，核心包括以下三个部分：“负责任的商业行为”，“区域性和传统”以及“经济稳健性”。此外，奥地利合作社在属于这些组成部分的许多特征方面与其他法律形式有所不同。对于每个部门，它包括随后的三个部分：“负责任的商业行为”，“区域性和传统”以及“经济稳健性”。此外，奥地利合作社在属于这些组成部分的许多特征方面与其他法律形式有所不同。对于每个部门，它包括随后的三个部分：“负责任的商业行为”，“区域性和传统”以及“经济稳健性”。此外，奥地利合作社在属于这些组成部分的许多特征方面与其他法律形式有所不同。