نشریه تعاون و کشاورزی
سال دوازدهم شماره 45 (بهار 1402)

Rural production cooperatives play an important role in sustainable rural development and are one of the advanced stages of cooperation. Rural production cooperatives play a very important role in reducing rural poverty by increasing production efficiency and can provide services that governments are unable to provide for poor people. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of rural production cooperatives in improving the status of the 12 components of Legatum welfare in rural areas.

Methodology/approach:

 The present research was conducted using a survey and descriptive-correlational methodology. The statistical population of the present study consisted of 17,493 rural household members and non-members in rural production cooperatives of Miandoab city and 377 households were randomly selected. Data were collected through structured interviews and analyzed using SPSS27 and LISREL software 8.8.

Findings and conclusions:

 The results showed that rural production cooperatives play an effective role in improving the 12 structures of Legatum welfare (including safety and security; personal freedom; governance; social capital; investment environment; entrepreneurial conditions; market access and infrastructure; economic conditions; living conditions; health; education and natural environment). Meanwhile, rural production cooperatives played the biggest role in improving the education component. In the end, practical suggestions were presented.

Previous studies have investigated the role of one or two components of welfare, and none of the previous studies have addressed the role of all components of welfare simultaneously, which is considered among the innovations of the current research.

The purpose of this study is to define the combination of entrepreneurial dimensions, entrepreneurial activism, identifying opportunities and strategies that lead to improving brand performance in SMEs.

This applied research was conducted based on the quantitative approach. Dimensions and indicators of the study have been identified by experts and specialists in marketing and human resources and a research questionnaire has been designed. The statistical population of the study included human resource managers of SMEs. Sample (400 people) was selected using cluster sampling method. Combination of Defined Factors Fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was performed.

The results of the analysis show that all conditions (risk-taking, innovation, proactiveness, innovative approaches and capabilities, opportunity identification and strategy) belong to at least one combination (solution) that leads to an increase in the company's brand performance.

This study shows the compounds that lead to improved brand performance in SMEs. It also contributes to innovation research by showing a combination of factors in which innovation can positively or negatively affect firm performance. Another important contribution of this study is related to SMEs. The combination of factors that can lead to the success of SMEs has been identified in this study.

The number of all Handmade-Carpet cooperatives was 38 including 366 members. Of those members 181 people were selected as the samples through Morgans' sampling table. A proportionate selection method was used to select the fit samples from each cooperative. The validity of the questions was done by experts' views and recommendations. The reliability of the questions was tested through Alpha's test (alpha =0.874 to 0.909). After gathering data, SPSS software was used to analyze and describe the data. In descriptive part, both frequency tables and central statistics such as mean, median and mode as well as discrepancy statistics such as standard deviation and coefficient of variation were used. In analytical part, correlation and regression analysis methods and Mann-Whitenny and Kruskal- Wallis tests were used. The correlation's results showed that there was a significant relationship between variables attendance into training courses, income's amount from the cooperatives, the level of content relevancy, the level of objectives relevancy, the level of educators' knowledge, the level of training methods relevancy and the the effectiveness of the training courses. In addition, the results of regression analysis by a stepwise method revealed that the variables the level of objectives relevancy, income's amount from the cooperatives, and the level of educators' knowledge were determined 81.6 percent of dependent variable (the training courses' effectiveness).

The main purpose of this research was to investigate the role of authentic leadership in improving the services quality of the Directorate Department of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare of Gilan province with the mediating role of citizenship behavior and organizational trust.

The present research is applied in terms of purpose, correlation in terms of method field study in terms of data collection. A questionnaire with 33 questions was used to collect data. The statistical population of the research includes 253 employees, were 155 out of them were selected using Cochran's formula as the sample. Data were analyzed using SPSS22 and SMART PLS3 softwares.

Conclusion and suggestion:

 The results of the analysis showed that authentic leadership has a positive effect on the services quality of the General Directorate of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare of Gilan province by mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior and organizational trust. Finally, it was suggested that managers, in case of making a mistake, accept and admit it, follow ethical standards, and also provide innovative and creative opinions and suggestions to the organization and always help colleagues and clients.

Originality:

 While studying the role of authentic leadership in improving the service quality, this research aims to provide a framework for examining the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior and organizational trust variables in the relationship between authentic leadership and improving the services quality among employees of General Directorate of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare of Gilan Province.

The main purpose of the research is to explain a model of the application of production jump components, removing obstacles in the empowerment of rural cooperatives in Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad province.

Methodology/approach:

The current research is of the hybrid-alignment type. In the qualitative part, 10 experts of the cooperatives were selected using the targeted sampling method. In the quantitative part of the research method, it is a survey and 249 members of the cooperatives were selected by simple random sampling.

The results of the theme analysis identified 6 main components of the production jump-removal of obstacles: social, economic, political-legal, managerial, educational, infrastructural indicators. The results of the structural equations showed that managerial-organizational indicators with a standard coefficient of 0.220 have the greatest impact; And legal-political indicators with a standard coefficient of 0.125 have the least impact on the empowerment of rural cooperatives. Therefore, it is possible to improve the performance of this sector by creating obstacles and paying attention to production indicators in the cooperative sector.

In previous researches, factors affecting the success and performance of cooperatives were repeatedly discussed. In this research, while taking into account the indicators identified in previous researches, specifically, the indicators of production jump-obstacles in the light of the statements of the supreme leader of the revolution and the second step of the extraction revolution and their role in empowering rural cooperatives have been studied. The method and results of this research are innovative.

Application private GAP standard for safety product certification due to costs is out of reach in many small and medium-sized farms among smallholder farmers. GroupGAP has provided a much-anticipated alternative where operators and farmers' cooperatives can pay the cost of certification on a cost-sharing basis. The purpose of this research was to explain the development strategies of GAP standard with emphasis on GroupGAP in the rice production system of Mazandaran province. Research is qualitative and data analysis was conducted in the grounded theory method, during a three-stage process of open coding, central coding, and selective coding. The data collection tool included an in-depth and semi-structured interview with a qualitative content analysis technique, which was analyzed through Maxquda software. The statistical population of the research was 18 experts of the Agricultural Jihad Organization and managers of the Rice Farmers Cooperative Company of Mazandaran Province, who were selected by the purposeful sampling method. After extracting the concepts of the content analysis of the interviews, 9 conceptual codes out of 30 initial codes were identified in the first stage of coding. After refining and merging, the codes were classified into 3 subcategories: group certification system, the development of publicGAP programs and the development of private GAP. Due to the importance of the GAP standard issue and farmers' problems in providing the audit fees and establishment of GAP certificate. Therefore, research is an attempt to provide a useful framework in explaining GAP standard strategies in adopting the government, private, group and cooperative certification system.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between social capital and conflict management and its impact on institutional effectiveness in rural cooperative companies. This research was conducted through the survey approach and a researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect field data. The statistical population of the research included members of 13 rural cooperative companies of Gorgan county (N=14988). The sample size was estimated using Cochran's formula (n=315) and the respondents were selected by random cluster sampling.. All statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS21 and AMOS20. At the descriptive level, according to the measurement of the non-weighted linear combination of variables, most of the respondents evaluated the status of social capital, conflict management, and institutional effectiveness in cooperative companies at an average level. At the analytical level, the fit of the structural model indicated the causal relationship between social capital and conflict management, and institutional effectiveness. Among the three components of social capital, two communicative and cognitive components had a significant impact on conflict management. Also, among the three components of social capital, two structural and cognitive components had a significant effect on institutional effectiveness. Finally, investigating the causal relationship between social capital and conflict management with institutional effectiveness, showed that the conflict management variable has a fully mediating role in the relationship between social capital and institutional effectiveness.

The aim of this study was to analyze and prioritize indicators of cooperation based on trust in the cooperative sector of an urban economy from the perspective of members of consumer cooperatives in Lorestan province

This study was conducted based on a quantitative approach using survey method. The research population consisted of members of the top consumer cooperatives in Lorestan province, including members of the board of directors, inspectors, CEOs, members and shareholders of 11 consumer cooperatives. For this purpose, a questionnaire was distributed and collected among 385 people using stratified sampling method. Data were analyzed confirmatory factor analysis.

The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that all components have an acceptable factor loading in relation to the latent variables of the research. The results of Friedman test showed that the priority of the effect of each research structure in the cooperation model based on the trust of Iranian cultural cooperatives is different. Indicators, in order of impact, from high to low, including effectiveness and efficiency, customer orientation and satisfaction, resources and financial status, trust requirements, prospects, cooperative pathology, rules and regulations, interaction and cooperation, diverse services and the requirements for forming a cooperative were identified.

The research method of the present study is a combination (qualitative-quantitative) with an exploratory approach. In the quantitative part of the statistical society, there were 655 cooperative companies with 19,901 thousand cooperative members in Zahedan city, out of which 8 cooperative companies with 300 members were randomly selected as a sample. Then, based on Morgan's table, 169 questionnaires were completed randomly and with proportional assignment in all eight companies. In order to analyze the data in the qualitative part, the meta-combination method was used through the seven-step method of Sandelowski and Barroso. Based on this, 47 articles in the field of cooperatives were analyzed and research indicators were identified. In the second stage of the research, in order to validate the research model, structural equation modeling technique was used with Smart PLS software version 2, and AHP method was used with Expert Choice software version 11 to prioritize the identified indicators. In this research, the data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through exploratory factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated using Cronbach's alpha test of 0.91, which indicates the appropriate reliability of the research tool. The results of the research data analysis indicated that the marketing index with a weight of 0.88 has the highest priority in the empowerment of cooperatives,