Evaluating the effect of social capital on rural cooperatives with a structural equation modeling approach

In order to achieve rural development, the formation and activation of cooperatives is one of the most important solutions that policy makers and rural development planners are concerned about. In this regard, social capital is the foundation and main pillar of the formation of cooperatives and plays a significant role in the formation and development of cooperatives. Therefore, the aim of this quantitative and applied research is to investigate the role of social capital on the formation and development of rural cooperatives, which was conducted as a case study in Fars province. The statistical population of the research is made up of the active cooperative members of Fars province, among whom the desired statistical sample is fulfilled. The main tool for collecting field data was a researcher-made questionnaire, whose validity and reliability have been confirmed by following the principles of field research methods. SPSS and Amos Graphics software were used for data analysis. The results of the research showed that the status of social capital indicators is at a relatively acceptable level But The satisfaction status of the members with the indicators related to the performance of rural cooperatives is at a weak level. The results of the final and fitted model of structural equations regarding the investigation of the effect of social capital on the performance of rural cooperatives showed that the independent variable was able to explain about 16% of the variance of the dependent variable of the research with a total effect of 0.397.