Identifying and Analyzing the Barriers to Organizational Entrepreneurship Development in Rural Development Cooperatives in the Zanjan Province

The main purpose of this descriptive- correlative survey was to identify and analyze the barriers to organizational entrepreneurship development in rural development cooperatives of the Zanjan Province. The statistical population of the subjects under study consisted of all of the main members of administrative boards in the cooperatives of the Zanjan Province (N= 335). According to the Bartlett et al. (2001) table, a sample size of 120 was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire was used to collect data. A panel of experts confirmed the validity of the questionnaire. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the main scales of the questionnaire was higher than 0.75. The descriptive results showed that four variables had the highest priority. These include the strict rules for payment of loans by public and private banks to cooperatives; lack of adequate capital in the cooperatives and their lack of access to credit and financial resources; shortcomings in labor laws and lack of necessary context for group activities and team work in the cooperatives. The results of factor analysis revealed that four factors namely, structural, environmental, cognitive- knowledge, lack of effective organizational culture, lack of support and individual explained 61.38 percent of the total variances of the barriers to organizational entrepreneurship development in cooperatives.