نشریه تعاون و کشاورزی
سال بیست و یکم شماره 3 (پاییز 1389)

Development of fishery cooperatives can lead to employment opportunities, create value added in fishery products, become a tourism attraction, provide food security and finally guarantee sustainable development of fishery industry. Therefore this study was conducted in 2010 with the objective of studying factors affecting the success of fishery cooperatives of Kermanshah Province. This is an applied study with prospective and perspective elements. The statistical population of this study is the members of active fishery cooperatives that were counted because of their limited numbers. The data were collected using questionnaires and their validity was confirmed by the professors and experts of cooperation and fishery department, managers of fishery cooperatives and fellow researchers, and their reliability was determined using pilot test and Cronbach Alpha to be 0.77. To measure the success, numerical taxonomy indexing method was used. The results of numerical taxonomy showed that the fishery cooperatives of Kermanshah in general are unsuccessful. The results of correlative analysis of Spearman and Pierson showed that there is a significant correlation between independent variables of the study (human and social aspects, legal, organizational and policy making circumstances, familiarity of the members with the principles of cooperation and economic factors) and success of the cooperative. Regression analysis also showed that there is a high correlation between dependent and independent variables and the determining coefficient is 0.51. Therefore 51% of the cooperatives success is thereby determined. The familiarity of members with principles of cooperation and the human and social factors are respectively the least and the most variables contributing to the success of cooperatives.

In the new world, language has gained special complexity as one of the most important tools of human communication and continues to become more specialized in the various scientific fields and different administrative fields. Considering the conditions and planning priorities of the country and the importance of cooperation sector in macro planning and also the scientific development of the academic field of cooperation studies in various local universities, consideration of the status of definitions and terminology of the cooperation sector with the updating and localization approach has become of particular importance which was pursued as a project in the Ministry of Cooperatives. Based on the measures taken, the current study has been revised, prepared and implemented with the purpose of examining the opinions of the experts in the cooperation sector regarding the suitability of revised terms. The study methodology is descriptive and correlative-consistent and also the statistical population of the current research includes the authorities of the Ministry of Cooperatives, academic authorities in the six fields (planning, education & extension, geography, sociology & management, economics and law) of the universities of Tehran city, the colleagues in the multiple think tanks of the Ministry, faculty members of the universities with cooperative groups all over the country and the like. The results of the research have shown that all the proposed terms are acceptable and their definitions are appropriate from the viewpoint of the active experts. Also the terms which require localization are more than terms requiring updating, but there is no significant difference between them in terms of the level of suitability of the proposed definitions. Despite the superiority (suitability) of the level of the opinion of the respondent experts, a significant difference is observed between the comments provided by the experts in the multiple groups.

In this age organizations rate of learning should be faster than environment rate of changing if they hope to survive. This shows the importance of individual and organizational learning. Cooperatives akin to other organizations should consider this fact in order to play their key role in the economy of the country. This study examines the role of leadership in improving learning in Tehran’s producing cooperatives. The study was carried out in 2010 and the data used in the analysis were derived from questionnaires distributed in 5 cooperatives in Tehran which were taken from the population of active producing cooperatives with random sampling methods and then the number of respondents was selected through Cochran formula. Correlation – Regression analysis was used in order to test research hypotheses. The results showed that leadership can improve and develop learning (individual & organizational learning) in these cooperatives, therefore cooperatives can facilitate this process by consideration of the experience of the candidates for the board of directors and managing director, identifying creative and innovative members and supporting them, supporting productive ideas and suggestions, dispatching members to obtain necessary skills and qualification, determining the cooperatives vision and effective planning and monitoring.

The objective of this study is to promote knowledge in country’s producing cooperatives and to examine and determine the probable relationship between quality, price, advertisement and method of distribution in cooperative producing companies in Kuhdasht County with decision of customers to purchase and determining the satisfaction of customers in 2010. Customers of cooperative producing companies in Kuhdasht form the population of this research. The sampling size of this field descriptive-correlative study was determined according to sampling formula of unlimited populations (n=20). The validity of the questionnaires was determined 98% using Cronbach test. Research findings shows that the customer satisfaction from purchasing the products of the mentioned companies is 2.10%, lower than expected average of 3%. This implies their low satisfaction. Therefore it can be concluded that that marketing strategies of producing cooperative companies in Kuhdasht couldn’t provide the necessary satisfaction for the customer causing the costumers lack of interest in purchasing the products of these companies. In other words, customer's satisfaction is subject to quality, price, advertisement and distribution variables which as intervention variables provide and supply the demand of the customers, leading to decisions to purchase from these companies.

Central District of Khodabandeh is an important agricultural zone of the Khodabandeh County and in the Zanjan province. Studying the role of agricultural cooperatives in economic development as well as identifying its possibilities and limitations can improve the performance of cooperatives and rural development projects. This paper investigates the effects on the development of agricultural cooperatives in the rural economy through SWOT analysis in 2010. Delphi method is used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the cooperatives face and based on the results an appropriate strategy to improve the performance of cooperatives are presented. Statistical population includes 155 companies with 1,130 members of agricultural cooperatives in rural areas from which 35 Cooperatives and 250 members were randomly selected and 2 questionnaires were filled out in each cooperative. Also 70 questionnaires were distributed among non-member individuals to collect the necessary data. The results show that the cooperative sector of rural economy has the ability to solve problems, but some factors prevent the development of their work which in addition to rural economy stem from structural barriers and weaknesses in national and regional policy making. To improve the performance of cooperatives, Ministry of Cooperatives Cooperatives should increase its range of operations and a comprehensive revision of facilitating and monitoring policies, particularly in rural areas and agriculture, is also necessary.

The objective of this study is to identify factors affecting the development and empowering entrepreneurship in agricultural producing cooperatives in Zanjan province. A descriptive–correlative approach was used in this study. The statistical population of the study consists of agricultural cooperative managers. Samples were selected using randomly stratified method with Cochrane formula (n=165). Results showed that from the perspective of managers, the most important factors in empowering entrepreneurship in agricultural cooperatives are financial and taxation supports, amending banking laws adapting them with entrepreneurs working conditions and compiling the national document of entrepreneurship development. Results also demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between the entrepreneurship scores of managers and education level of the board of director and also between entrepreneurship scores and cooperatives’ success and the total number of members. One-way variance analysis showed that there is significantly different between entrepreneurship scores of agricultural cooperatives in different counties of the province.

The objective of the current study (sponsored by the Ministry of Cooperation) was to present an appropriate framework for training efficient managers in cooperation sector by relying on three aspects of education, research and extension. The research methodology was descriptive (survey) and the required statistical data were collected using questionnaires with stratified random sampling method among 200 managers of cooperative sector of Tehran Province. The distance between the current status and desirable condition of main components resulted from researches about efficient management (participative management, human resources development, empowerment, ICT, organizational learning and entrepreneurship) was determined with descriptive and inferential statistics from the aspect of the manager and through factorial analysis of their prioritization. The research findings show that human development and entrepreneurship components respectively have the most deviation from the mean compared to other components. The results of grading efficient management components shows that entrepreneurship, IT, human resources development, empowering, organizational learning and participative management components respectively rank 1st to 6th in efficiency. The results of analyzing the current status of education, research and extension in three levels of management demonstrated that the current status of education, research and extension is not desirable and requires revision in type, quality and quantity of courses in the cooperation sector. Studying the current and desirable conditions of cooperation management status of Iran implies that there is a significant difference between the current status of all efficient management components and the desirable one form the aspect of managers. With regard to the findings of the study, a conceptual framework for management of cooperatives was presented.

Hand-woven Persian carpet as an art and a craft has been long precedent in Iran’s history. Despite of this historical record, there are numerous problems with adapting this valuable hand-woven product with modern international markets to achieve its true position. Therefore this study with the objective of examining the role of carpet hand-weaving cooperatives in developing the exports of this carpet was conducted in 2010. The statistical population was the managers of carpet hand-weaving cooperative companies of Zanjan Province, experts in Zanjan Department of Commerce, experts in the General Department of Cooperation in Zanjan, traders and exporters of Zanjan, and the necessary data was collected from the sample (selected with random sampling method) through 25 questionnaires. The results of the study show that, although carpet hand-weaving cooperatives have improved their role in exports through governmental supports, however because education courses were not export oriented, the cooperatives could not utilized this tool to improve their role in increasing the exports of hand-woven carpets. Also most of carpet hand-weaving cooperatives could not completely identify target market to attend international exhibitions and therefore increase their role in development of hand-woven carpets of the country.