Women's Cooperatives in Iran: Recognition and analysis of Success

Cooperation is one of the important economic sectors of the country and contributes significantly to the employment generation. During the past two decades, female cooperatives have been extended through the country. One of the paramount endeavours of these cooperatives has been to explore and share the factors of success. Accordingly, this study was conducted to identify factors influencing female cooperatives success in Irn. A descriptive-survey research design was adapted for the study. The statistical population of the study consisted of 1500 of the expert officials from ministry of cooperative and 12,819 of the members of managerial board from female cooperatives, out of which 153 expert officials and 453 members of managerial board were selected as a sample, using a multi-stage sampling technique. A specific questionnaire was developed for the study. Factor analysis of the view points of the members of managerial board revealed about 66.5 percent of the variance of success. This analysis identified four main factors affecting the success of women’s cooperatives viz., improving psychological and motivational environment of the cooperatives, getting support from the able and supportive exteriority, improving managerial and organizational competencies of the cooperatives and enhancing and improving capabilities of cooperatives’ marketing. Analysis of the viewpoints of another group showed similar results.