Factors Affecting Rural Cooperatives Losses (A Case Study: Amirkabir Rural Cooperative in Fars Province)

In our country, rural cooperatives were established in order to improve the quality of villagers’ life and raising employment production and their social status. But, Evaluation of cooperatives in our country and in Fars province revealed that some of them couldnt achieve this goal. The purpose of this study was to investigate affecting factors on rural cooperative losses which was done as combined explanatory. The population of this study was all members of Amirkabir rural cooperative (1300 members). 297 members were selected by using random sampling. Also, in qualitative part 25 members of the cooperative were extensively interviewed. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data the questionnaire validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and a pilot test was performed to evaluate its reliability the Cronbach's alpha was between 0.72-0.86. Quantitative results revealed that eight variables: responsiveness of cooperative executive board, cooperatives department operation system, education of members, drought, members social participation members, members awareness of cooperative principles, members satisfaction from cooperative executive board and over all social confidence, could explain 80 percent of changes in dependent variable (cooperative losses). Qualitative findings also revealed that seven factors: environmental, economic, social, human capital, management, support and training were affecting factors on success of rural cooperative. Comparison of the results of the quantitative and qualitative study show that in both methods some factors were affecting the losses of cooperative such as dissatisfaction with the performance of cooperative administration, training of members, drought, trust and deficiency in management. Finally, a connection between successful and unsuccessful cooperativesis suggested in order to exchange information and discuss their experiences.