نشریه تعاون و کشاورزی
سال دهم شماره 38 (تابستان 1400)

Although transparency literature is mainly concentrated on government transparency, but it has gone far beyond it and has been extended to private companies, cooperatives, NGOs and charities. The field of cooperatives is one of the fields in which transparency has entered in recent decades in the form of concepts such as "corporate governance", "corporate transparency" and "open corporate data". The aim of this research is to design an index to measure transparency in cooperatives. This qualitative research has been conducted using documentary studies, interviews with 45 experts and focus group. The statistical population of the study includes all experts and activists in the field of cooperation, including managers and government experts, members of unions and chambers, and members of cooperatives. Cooperative Transparency Index (CTI) consists of 6 dimensions and 39 items. In addition to measuring the level of transparency in cooperatives (in the range of 0 to 100), this index determines the optimum or desired level of transparency, separately for "each user in each item", "each item", "each dimension" and "final amount of Index". Finally, some policy recommendations have been proposed to promote transparency in the cooperative sector, including participation of major actors in cooperative sector, reduction of bureaucratic complexities and education of cooperatives.

Given the importance of land consolidation plans in the development and improvement of agricultural status in terms of increasing agricultural production, improving income levels of farmers, and production cooperatives formation, it is necessary to identify barriers and obstacles to implement this plans and to remove them. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze the barriers and obstacles of land consolidation and production cooperatives formation in rural areas of Zarghan County. The study population was Zarghan regional farmers located in Fars province that 38 of them were selected by purposeful and snowball sampling. Research data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed in three stages: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding with the help of MAXQDA software and classified into four main barriers. These include agricultural barriers, administrative barriers, economic barriers, and socio-cultural barriers. Finally, according to the results, suggestions were made to develop this project.

In the 21st century, cooperatives are a good lever for the development of countries that can be effective in improving living conditions,production and raising the level of income and social and cultural status of the people in line with government policies. cooperatives people's institution can play a great role in the comprehensive development of villages. This research is a quantitative research in nature. In terms of control of variables, non-experimental and in terms of purpose is applied research and has been done by descriptive-correlation method. The statistical population of the study included cooperative experts of Ardabil province (N = 144 people). The sample size was determined 104 people using Morgan table. Simple random sampling method was randomly selected. The subjects were questioned and interviewed using a questionnaire. In the present study, the main tool for data collection was a questionnaire. The content validity of the tools used in this study was reviewed and confirmed by professors in the field of cooperation and university professors. In order to determine the reliability of the research tool, a pre-test was performed using 30 questionnaires in the early stages of questioning and its Cronbach's alpha value was calculated using SPSS software version 21. The results of the second type confirmatory factor analysis showed that the most effective factors include development of education, reform and improvement of rural economy, job creation and reduction of migration, improvement of household economy, expansion of participatory culture, development of industry, improvement of welfare services and agricultural development.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of brand orientation on brand performance in transformational agricultural cooperatives with respect to the role of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing capability. This research was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey method. A 40-item questionnaire based on sequential scale and a five-point Likert scale was used to collect data. Level of analysis of the company and the statistical population of the research, agricultural cooperatives in Firoozabad city are 85 companies. The sample size was calculated using Krejcie Morgan table of 70 people who were selected by simple random sampling method. SmartPLS software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that entrepreneurial orientation and marketing capabilities have a positive and significant effect on brand orientation with path coefficients of 0.85 and 0.72, respectively. The effect of brand orientation on brand performance was also confirmed (path coefficient 0.669 and significance coefficient 13.701). According to the results, the approach of managers of cooperatives in the optimal use and combination of internal resources to create and develop marketing capabilities, as well as entrepreneurial and opportunity-oriented approach to the market, can have a significant effect on brand orientation and ultimately improve brand performance and performance of these companies.

The main goal of this article was to design and implement a light livestock (sheep or goat) micro-insurance model in rural areas in the form of a cooperative insurance. In the first phase, to identify the pillars of cooperative micro-insurance (i.e., insurers, policyholders, actuary, and reinsurance), the grounded theory framework has been conducted by several in-depth interviews. In the second step, based on the pricing index method, we employed weather indices. To derive an appropriate model, we used Mashhad city’s data from period 1950 to 2018. Among all available weather indices, only “Lowest temperature”, “Highest temperature” and “Average temperature in winter, spring and summer” indices have significant impact on loss ratio. The well fitted time series model for these indices are ARIMA(0,1,1), ARIMA(0,1,1), ARIMA(0,1,1), ARIMA(0,1,1) and ARIMA(0,1,1), respectively. Moreover, the best fitted distribution for loss ratio and present value of claims are LogNormal and mixture LonNormal, respectively. Using these findings, price of the light livestock insurance coverage has been estimated. In the third phase, in the form of two types of reinsurance, stop-loss and proportional reinsurances with upper limit, the share of the main insurer (cooperative insurance fund) and the reinsurer (agricultural products insurance fund); premium and damages have been determined exactly. The results of this study showed that the use of this type of micro-insurance, in addition to eliminating moral hazards and adverse selection, will make the share of the reinsurer (Agricultural Products Insurance Fund) more homogeneous than the damages.

Considering the important role of rural cooperatives in sustainable rural development, Evaluating the efficiency and performance of these organizations plays an important role in the decision making of planners and managers.The main purpose of this study is to investigating the profit efficiency of rural cooperative and its Effective Factors in Guilan Province using stochastic frontier function production method and the behavioral profit model. The statistical population of the present study was 110 active rural cooperatives in Guilan province in 2017 and the sampling method was census. The results showed the average of profit efficiency of rural cooperatives in Guilan province is 63%. Also, the results of estimating the profit function showed the current capital and costs related to the activities of these cooperatives have a direct and significant relationship with frontier profit. In addition, investigating the effective factors on profit inefficiency of rural cooperatives showed the duration of activity of these cooperatives, second job, manager's wage and management Experience have a positive and significant effect on profit inefficiency. On the other hand, the number of shareholders, number of villages, cooperative distance to city, establishment of cooperative in the center of province, education of manager and the number of training courses for cooperative managers have a negative and significant effect on profit inefficiency of rural cooperatives in Guilan province

The purpose of this study is to provide a model for creating entrepreneurial knowledge in large-scale cooperatives. This research has been done qualitatively and with the thematic analysis and has tried to understand and extract the dimensions and components needed to create entrepreneurial knowledge in large-scale cooperatives. The research population consisted of 18 experts in entrepreneurial knowledge in large-scale cooperatives who were selected from a series of purposive sampling methods. Thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data. Based on the findings of the study, the factors affecting the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge in this study from the perspective of the interviewees are: personal characteristics, infrastructure and organization, environment and support. From the interviewees' point of view, the sub-categories including general knowledge, finance and support, and rules and regulations also had the most repetition in the interviews. According to the results obtained from the research, it is suggested to the managers of large-scale cooperatives that the conditions for innovation, self-esteem, desire for success be provided as the main value in the organization. Design the structure of the organization in a way that is flexible and organic because it promotes creative ideas and thinking in the organization. Look for new opportunities in the market, and ultimately support and nurture entrepreneurial opportunities, while also identifying and developing the resources needed to take advantage of them.

The present era is full of crises and unforeseen events; One of these crises is the outbreak and ‎pandemic of the Corona Virus, which has affected the performance of all organizations and in many ‎cases has led to the destruction of organization’s existence. Therefore, the ‎purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Corona Virus pandemic on cooperative ‎businesses in Bushehr province. The statistical population of the present study consists of the ‎experts from the General Department of Cooperatives, Labor and Welfare of Bushehr Province. The ‎present research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey type. The research was ‎conducted in two stages; Thus, in the first stage, using scientific sources and reviewing the relevant ‎theoretical foundations, indicators affecting the performance of cooperatives were extracted, and ‎then by forming a focus group and consulting experts, the final indicators were selected by fuzzy ‎method. In the second stage, using the AHP technique, the dimensions and indicators affecting the ‎performance of cooperatives in Bushehr province were weighted and ranked. Findings of the ‎research in the first stage indicated that from the identified indicators of the review of theoretical ‎foundations, ‎‏26‏‎ indices have higher weight and importance for entering the second stage of ‎research. The research results revealed that from four perspectives of organizational performance; ‎The customer perspective ranks first with a weight score of ‎‏0.336‏‎ in the context of the Corona Virus ‎outbreak, followed by financial perspectives, internal processes, and growth and learning.‎

Today, the issue of cooperation and togetherness is very important and necessary considering the current situation in the Sistan region.The Sistan region suffers from problems such as unemployment, lack of sustainable employment and frequent droughts.Considering the importance of the issue, the purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize the obstacles and problems of cooperatives in the villages of Sistan region. In this regard, 20 questionnaires based on 68 options and 13 indicators were developed by experts of the General Department of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Rural Cooperatives of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Zahedan city insurance offices and professors of Sistan and Baluchestan University.For this purpose, the gray theory technique (GRA) and GRA solver 2015 software were used to extract the results. Based on the results, the most important obstacles and problems of cooperatives in Sistan region are: According to the results, the most important obstacles and problems of cooperatives in Sistan region are: Lack of liquidity to provide working capital. with a weight of 0.615, which is in the first priority. Also, the lack of a suitable cultural context to promote the spirit of cooperation. with a weight of 0.597 is the second priority. On the other hand, the lack of familiarity of university graduates with the structure and method of activity in the cooperative company and the lack of counseling centers to guide and solve the unemployment problems of cooperative companies is in the third priority with a weight of 0.594.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of environmental values, attitudes and ethics with environmental behaviors among ranchers’ members of rangeland cooperatives in Gonbad Kavous. The statistical population was 644 operators who were members of rangeland cooperatives in 17 conventional systems, of which 240 were selected by stratified random sampling using Krejcie and Morgan table. A questionnaire was used to collect information. The content and appearance validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by experts, and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha method. Data were analyzed using mean comparison, correlation and regression tests. The results of the mean comparison test showed that there is a significant difference between different groups of respondents according to the level of education regarding the component of environmental ethics, based on the history of animal husbandry, regarding the component of environmental value, based on the second job, regarding the components of attitude, ethics and environmental behavior, and based on the frequency of participation in training courses on value components and environmental behavior. The results of correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the variables of attitude, and environmental ethics, and the environmental behavior of the respondents. The results of regression analysis showed that having ethics and environmental attitude has a positive effect on environmental behavior, and ethics has a greater effect. This study recommended increasing the use of cooperative capacity of ranchers by creating and supporting environmental organizations of ranchers to protect the environment.