Analyzing the Role of Rural Cooperatives in Sustainable Development: Corporate Social Responsibility Approach

This study aimed mainly at investigating the corporate social responsibility of rural cooperatives in Tehran County. The statistical population of the study consisted of the 6435 members of the rural cooperatives in Tehran. The sample size was determined based on the Cochran formula, 237. According to the categorized sampling with probability proportionate and randomization, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the rural cooperative members to be studied. The formal validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by an expert group using the Cronbach's alpha (α= 0.89). According to the study results, most respondents (49.3 percent) assessed the social responsibility of the rural cooperatives to be at very low to low levels. Nine factors resulting from the factor analysis of corporate social responsibility included “the environmental protection trend”, “participation in community development”, “participation in the development of business environment”, “inclusion criteria and legalism in management”, “supply management”, “human resource management”, “customer orientation”, “localism” and “transparent communication”; these factors altogether explained 62.710 percent of the total variance of the corporate social responsibility aspects.