The aim of this article is to present a study carried through to 12 Brazilian cooperative complexes belong to the following sectors: agribusiness, fishing/mariculture, handicraft, textile and metallurgist. The present research is characterized as an exploratory study, supported by the multiple case study method, being composed for: documentary research, analysis of the main characteristics of the cooperative complexes belonging to different productive chains, comparative analysis of such enterprises. The study is based on the concepts as the externalities, joint actions and inter-organizational cooperation level