Investigation of the Role of Structural, Leadership , and Strategy Factors in Cooperatives Entrepreneurship

Abstract

There are more than one million agricultural coope ratives members in Iran. In the meantime, the rapid development of the animal husba ndry in Iran has forced cooperatives to meet the members’ scientific and pr actical needs for completing production cycle of the dairy industry. Livestock p roduction covers a wide spectrum of livestock activities including bee keeping, silkwor m raising, and aquaculture, indicating widespread business systems in Iranian animal husba ndry. Due to significant livestock population, various animal products, such as raw mi lk, red meat, white meat (chicken and fish), eggs, and honey are produced. Thus, the ment ioned cooperatives need to meet the markets demands for keeping competitive advantage m ore than any time before. Only when innovation is fostered, market competitive adv antage can be maintained. Today, sustainability and innovation issues have a great i mportance in some organizations such as agriculture cooperatives. The term “entrepreneur ship” is coined to describe this need to keep organizations in competitive situation by i nnovations tools. Presently, it is believed that entrepreneurship can be developed. Organizatio nal, personal, and environmental aspects are important factors toward entrepreneursh ip fostering. This study took into consideration three factors in cooperatives, includ ing structure, strategy, and leadership.The results of research revealed that th ese three variables play important role in entrepreneurship development in cooperatives. Th us, consideration of these aspects can help in development and boost cooperatives profits. The result of modeling by structural equations methods showed that 38% of the variance of entrepreneurship as a dependent variable could be explained by these three factors in cooperatives. Keywords: Agricultural cooperatives, Cooperative Entrepreneur ship, Organizational factors.