Cooperative Sector Research Articles

Stakeholders’ Involvement, Organizational Learning and Social Innovation: Factors for Strengthening the Resilience of Moroccan Cooperatives in the Post-COVID-19 Era

The Moroccan cooperative sector is increasingly important, not only in the social and economic fabric of Morocco, but also in the sustainable development of the Kingdom. With the advent of COVID, the cooperative sector offers more inclusive and sustainable economic alternatives than ever before. In this context, organizational resilience is essential to preserve the sustainability of cooperatives and anticipate potential crises. This study addresses the following issue: What are the organizational factors necessary to strengthen the organizational resilience of the Moroccan cooperative in the Fez-Meknes region in times of COVID-19 crisis? The purpose of this paper was to test the hypothesized relationships between a set of latent constructs (actor involvement and mobilization, organizational learning in times of a crisis and social innovation) and the organizational resilience of cooperatives in times of a COVID-19 crisis. The methodology adopted is structural equation modeling based on the PLS-SEM method under the “SmartPLS Version 3” used on data collected through a printed questionnaire administered to 160 cooperatives in the Fez-Meknes region. The results show the significant and positive influence between the exogenous constructs on the strengthening of organizational resilience of cooperatives as an endogenous construct. The novelty of the study lies in the identification of the organizational resources needed to strengthen the organizational resilience of cooperatives in the Moroccan context. The results show that organizational resilience depends on three selected organizational factors: stakeholder involvement and mobilization, organizational learning in the times of a crisis and social innovation.

The knowledge map of gender equality in cross-cultural communication: A bibliometric approach

It is urgent to solve the gender issues in global cross-cultural communication. Countries worldwide should responsible for achieving gender equality (SDG5). Hence, the study aims to portray the knowledge map of the gender issue in intercultural communication to explore the research status and future potential. The study used CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric method within 2728 English articles on cross-cultural communication and gender equality topics from the Web of Science (WoS). After cluster analysis and time series analysis, this study emphasis the continued attention and increasing trend of publications and elaborates on the critical authors, institutions, and countries of research on this issue. The results introduced Putnick as the dominant author contributed to the topic. The University of Oxford ranked the top1 in the institution cooperation relationship. Europe countries and the United States have made major contributions and influenced Asian and African countries, such as Burkina Faso, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. Gender issues in Asia and Africa are getting much attention. The keyword clusters formed by the authors' cooperation include gender equality, life satisfaction, network analysis, and alcohol use. In addition, childbirth technology, patient safety competition, life satisfaction, capital safety, and sex difference are the key word clustering results of institutional cooperation. At the level of national cooperation, internet addition, risk sexual behavior, covid-19 pandemic and suicidal idea have become the main keywords The results of keyword cluster analysis show that gender role attribute, psychological properties, dating policy, professional fulfillment, and entrepreneurial intention have become the main topics in the current research. The research frontier analysis reflects the importance of gender, women and health. The research on self-efficacy, diversity, image, life satisfaction and choice has become the trend of cross-cultural communication and gender issues. Furthermore, abundant achievement emerged in the subjects of Psychology, Education, Sociology, and Business economics. Geography, Language and Literature, Medicine, and Health industries also have been highly influential in recent years. Therefore, the conclusion suggests the studies of gender issues can be further deepened into more authors, areas, subject and other multiple cooperation sectors.

Cooperatives as Pillar of Economy to Improve Agriculture Production and Marketing

This paper focuses on the important role played by cooperatives in agriculture production and marketing in Nepal. The paper evaluates the role of cooperatives, their contribution to agriculture, current policies that have paved the way for development within the agriculture and cooperative sectors and recommendations for improving agriculture production and marketing. The methodology employed includes a review of existing literature on agriculture and cooperative policies, as well as discussions with key informants in the cooperative movement. The study highlights the need for support from government and non-government agencies to improve the service of agricultural cooperatives in various ways, particularly through policy intervention. The paper provides policy recommendations for the future, including the need for improved coordination between government agencies and cooperatives, capacity-building programs, commercialization of agro-products, ways of increasing agro-productivity and capacity-building for cooperative leaders, and better access to credit and markets. Overall, the study underscores the importance of cooperatives in the sustainable development of the agriculture sector in Nepal.

Agribusiness and Supply Chain Development Policies in Nepal: A Review from Temporal Dynamics

A critical review of agriculture policies during different plan periods, aligned with political changes, has been conducted out to understand the shift in priorities, technology transfer ,support products, and private sector engagement. Firstly, in the 1950s, the policies were influenced by the first five-year plan and focused on the import and dissemination of technology. During the three decades of the Panchayat era, there was an emphasis on state mechanisms for technology transfer, agribusiness, and research, with limited incentives for the private sector. After 1990, agricultural policy products followed a path of liberalization and focused on defining the state’s role and promoting pluralism. This period witnessed the establishment of a wide range of private and cooperative-led agribusinesses, although their growth was hindered by political conflict. Subsequently, policies began to incorporate priorities such as nutrition security, comparative advantage, competitiveness, climate change adaptation, agrobiodiversity conservation, and sustainability. However, with the federalization of the state and establishment of a three-tier governance system in 2015, agriculture policies, priorities and strategies a became fragmented, diversified, and localized, and lack harmonization. This review demonstrates that agriculture policies were largely influenced by domestic political developments and structural changes at the international level. Nonetheless, a consistent focus on increasing production and productivity, as well as achieving food security and self-sufficiency, can be observed.. Throughout all policy periods, supply chain development, a crucial component of agribusiness, received limited prioritization, which remains a major impediment to agricultural transformation. Despite seven decades of policy evolution, Nepal has been unable to create an enabling policy environment to attract significant private and cooperative sector investments that could drive substantial growth in agribusiness. This situation calls for further research in the field of policy formulation capacity among the three tiers of government to foster agribusiness and promote supply chain development for agricultural transformation.

ROLE OF CO-OPERATIVE NETWORK FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF BOVINE FEMALE INFERTILITY DISORDERS IN GUJARAT

The co-operative network in Gujarat, India, has given the livestock sector a new direction for growth. The co-operative sector's dairy husbandry department not only deals with treatment of ill animals but conducts extensive management programmes for infertility. Various programmes like fertility improvement programmes, calf rearing programme, ration balancing programme, productivity enhancement programme, village awareness progress, and training of artificial inseminators are in operation for fertility enhancement. The present review describes the impact of these programmes on fertility based on collected data from various co-operatives of Gujarat.

A Smart Co-Operative Management Framework Based on an EA Concept for Sustainable Development

A smart co-operative management framework aims to apply ICT to provide better services and increase management efficiency. The findings of previous studies suggest that the framework is suitable for any co-operative organization that uses information technology to improve its services, management, and governance. Therefore, this paper has applied a smart co-operative management conceptual model to a smart co-operative management framework. It is a smart co-operative management concept that complies with strategic management for responding to technological disruption. A smart co-operative management framework combines business and technology to align the concept to establish efficiency and governance in co-operative management. This paper presents a smart co-operative management framework based on the EA concept for sustainable development in co-operative management. This framework was developed through a smart co-operative conceptual model, comprehensive literature review, and requirement analysis based on the conceptual framework consisting of five layers: business, application, data and information, infrastructure and technology, and governance. Content validity was used for evaluation. This framework demonstrates that technology could enhance the co-operative sector through the layers of applications, data, and information supported by infrastructure and technology. This study shows the framework for sustainable development co-operatives in the co-operative sector. It also creates value through enterprise architecture (EA) and the smart co-operative management concept.

Utility of fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) methodology to identify causal relations conducting to cooperative failure

This study focuses on the search for the causes, or combination of circumstances, that lead to business failure processes. There is renewed interest in this subject due to the adverse consequences that the recent economic crisis has caused in the business world. A fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is thus carried out to identify the combination of financial ratios that points to situations of financial difficulty. The study centres on the cooperative sector, represented by a sample of 56 companies holding this legal status, belonging to various different productive sectors. The results obtained, and confirmed through a number of different robustness tests, reveal the presence of sufficient conditions comprising combinations of variables reflecting high indebtedness, low liquidity, low solvency and small firm size, representing a scenario that would be sufficient for an entity to face business continuity problems. Thanks to its ability to identify combinations of variables that warn of business failure, as well as its ease of interpretability, the fsQCA technique can be extremely useful for business management and the identification of business failure situations.

Agri-food Cooperatives’ Online Marketing: Evaluation of the Strategies Utilized by Spanish and UK Food Retailers Pre- and Post- COVID-19 Pandemic

The use of big data by large food retailers is increasing their bargaining power against the agri-food cooperative sector. The aim of this study was to determine the social media behaviour of food retailers in Spain and the UK, and to identify significant changes pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The study analysed Twitter data collected from 16 food retailers; a total of 102,200 valid tweets were extracted from their official Twitter accounts. A term frequency analysis and a social network analysis of food retailers’ Twitter behaviour were carried out. The results obtained show differences for both UK and Spanish retailers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For agri-food cooperatives with little bargaining power in the supply chain of fresh produce, data analysis is a key factor in improving their competitive positioning. These findings should be of value to data scientists as well as managers responsible for forming strategies in agri-food firms that have large food retailers as clients. Finally, the study also confirms that, for agri-food cooperatives, analysing tweet content is a cheap and useful tool for understanding customer behaviour.

Exploring the Effects of Municipal Land and Building Policies on Apartment Size in New Residential Construction in Sweden

New residential construction in many countries with rapid urban growth is often interrelated with smaller housing units being built. Sweden is not an exception. It is of interest to investigate the driving forces behind this tendency. Our presumption is that municipal land price policies and building permit regulations might play a certain role in this process. Contrary to previous studies that focus on the number of new dwelling units in housing construction, our purpose is to analyze the average size of new housing units and the factors that affect it on an aggregate level. We apply seemingly unrelated regressions for analysis of the average apartment size in new residential construction in the three largest metropolitan regions in Sweden as a function of the changes in population, apartment rent and prices, mortgage interest rates, land prices, and building permits per capita as a proxy for regulation. The unbalanced panel dataset includes the period between 1998 and 2017 and covers both the rental and the housing cooperative sectors. The analysis demonstrates that land prices and building policies along with market fundamentals are the underlying factors that affect the average size of an apartment in new residential construction in Sweden.

가나 협동조합 활성화 정책과 개발협력 파트너의 역할

Purpose: Cooperatives in Ghana, despite the history since 1920s, have contributed minimally to the national economy and demonstrated only a few success cases as socioeconomic enterprises. This study aimed to identify policy factors which enable the promotion of cooperatives in Ghana, and suggested actions to be taken by the government of Ghana and development partners.
 Originality: Korean researchers have rarely studied African cooperatives. Cooperatives are a proven mechanism for the economic advancement of developing countries, while Korean cooperatives have been globally recognized as excellent business organizations. This study presents an implication to roles of development partners like KOICA in empowering Africa’s cooperatives as a development cooperation agenda.
 Methodology: An ordered Probit model was employed to identify determinants of effectiveness of Ghana’s cooperative policy. The data was collected from 94 public officers and 5 employees of private entities in the cooperative sector.
 Result: Public awareness of cooperative’s benefit and audit service influenced effectiveness of Ghana’s cooperative policy. The policy should prioritize support to cooperatives’ empowerment, and the most urgent resource required by the Department of Cooperatives (DOC) was budget allocation. As a means to measure performance of DOC, number of cooperatives which own a valid certificate was most preferred.
 Conclusion and Implication: DOC is recommended to strengthen officer’s audit service and consider running a public awareness campaign on cooperative’s benefits. The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR), as an overarching ministry of cooperative policy of Ghana, should quicken the revision of the Cooperative Societies Act and upgrade statistical reporting. Development partners such as KOICA are advised to identify a joint project with MELR/DOC to empower the cooperatives. Cooperative leaders and members should actively seek an opportunity for training and business transactions, and strengthen a partnership with their community.

Socio-Demographic Status among Rural Municipalities in Humla District, Nepal: A Comparative Study

This study compares the status of rural municipalities in the Humla district of Nepal regarding various household and demographic variables. This paper aims to compare rural municipalities of the Humla district in terms of population, area, sex ratio, literacy ratio, dependency ratio, fuel used, drinking water, internet user, etc. It is based on secondary data from the central bureau of statistics (CBS). The descriptive and comparative design is used to explore the result. It analyzes the data from the perspective of rural development. Rural development is the process of creating wellbeing and ensuring the quality of life among rural people. This study revealed that there are unequal situations in rural municipalities. In some rural municipalities, there is a situation of demographic loss. There is a lack of well-being among people. Deficiencies and deprivation of socio-economic requirements are common for them. Rural areas in the northern belt have acute problems compared to the south-eastern belt of the district. Three tiers of government along with market and cooperative sectors must focus to launch their policy and program to uplift the miserable situation of rural municipalities in Humla district.

Economic Cooperation of Krasnoyarsk Krai (Territory) with Chinese Regions at the Beginning of the XXI Century (Based on Records of the Krasnoyarsk Krai State Archive)

The article deals with the development of economic cooperation between Krasnoyarsk Krai (Territory) and the regions of China in the first decade of the XXI century. The relevance of the study is in the need to draw on the historical experience of Russia-China relations for the successful development of economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China at the present stage. Currently, China is a priority strategic partner for Russia and a key focus of its foreign policy. Problems of interregional cooperation are in the focus of the study. Krasnoyarsk Krai has been cooperating most closely in economic sphere with three provinces of Northeast China, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, developing cooperation with southern regions of China. At the beginning of the 21st century, Russia's regions developed international cooperation, building on the experience of the previous decade, but in a new historical context. The authors, for the first time ever, introduce the records that they discovered at the Krasnoyarsk Krai State Archive. These documents show the mutual interest of Russian and Chinese regions in developing cooperation in different sectors of the economy and reflect the problems that hampered the development of economic cooperation, the case of Krasnoyarsk Krai in the first decade of the XXI century.

Diagnosis, Prevention, and Control of Hypertension in Iran: A SWOT Analysis

Background: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality that holds a unique place in population health and health care.
 Objectives: Given the exponential rise of high blood pressure as one of the major health problems, this study aimed to investigate the current situation and provide a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis in the management of hypertension
 Methods: A qualitative study of 12 interviews was conducted with policymakers and managers. The sampling method was purposive sampling. Data collection was performed from January to July 2020. A thematic approach was used to analyze the data. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research 32-item (COREQ-32) checklist was applied to ensure quality control in the study design, analysis, and data reporting.
 Results: A total of 12 factors were identified as SWOT. The most important strengths included universal coverage of health services, provision of team-based care, and self-care training. The weaknesses were related to the therapeutic approach, long-term planning, and continuity of programs. Cooperation of other sectors with the health system and the existence of health management training centers were noted as opportunities to better implement hypertension management programs and confront threats such as conflicts of interest between guilds and organizations and crises.
 Conclusions: High blood pressure can be prevented. The present direction toward health-oriented policies can be changed in all sectors by taking advantage of the existing strengths and opportunities.

Influence of Training Programs on Motivation in Selected Cooperatives in Nepal

This study aims to examine the influence level of training on employee motivation in selected Saving and Credit Co-operative Sector in Kathmandu valley. This is a descriptive study. The study applied a quantitative research design. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The study applied judgmental sampling. Responses were entered in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), where statistical analysis was done. Inferential statistics i. e., correlation, and regression analysis were applied for data analysis. Multiple correlations indicate that employee competency, employee job knojob knowledge, technique, skill, and high correlation with motivation. The multiple linear regression model of employee motivation is significantly well-fitted to the given dataset. There is a satisfactory level of a significant and positive relationship between employee competency and motivation. The regression coefficient indicates that there is an insignificant and positive correlation between employee job knowledge and motivation. Both employee technique and employee skill have an insignificant and positive relationship with motivation. There is a significant, positive, and low relationship between employee morale and motivation. It is concluded that there is a significant relationship between dimensions of training and employee motivation. The training program helps to increase the motivation of employees in Cooperative Societies. The findings of this research study particularly support the Goal-Setting Theory. According to this theory, high self-efficacy individuals should be well-trained to achieve goals that lead to employee motivation. The research study will be helpful to the policymaking level both in the government and private sector.

Service supply chain risk management in the public healthcare sector

PurposeThe study research aims to examine the effects of supply chain management practices on risk mitigating (RM) by studying the correlation between social ties, institutional support, interagency cooperation and external flexibility in public healthcare sectors. Moreover, this research examines the impact of RM on supplier trust, and also the authors examine the relationship among supplier trust and logistics performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a structural equation model (SEM) based on 539 quantitative data from Ethiopian healthcare organizations. The model included control variables like company size and position to understand better how employees perceive risk mitigation.FindingsThe study's findings indicate that interagency collaboration and external flexibility positively affects RM. On the other hand, RM positively impacts supplier trust and also the supplier trust has a positive effects on performance dimensions. This study also shows that RM has not positively impacting institutional support and social ties.Practical implicationsThe study investigation may help the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare service SC agencies and other stakeholders better understand the effects of supply chain management practices on RM and obtain information on progress made thus far.Originality/valueThis research helps managers and their organizations to manage the risk associated with their organizations. Though, this study focuses on Ethiopian healthcare SCM. The authors expect the findings might apply to other countries organizations with comparable demographic or SCM features.

Investment and Joint Venture Potentials in the Cooperative Sector

"All great reforms, great movements, come from the bottom, not the top... Wherever there is a wrong, point cut to all the world, and you can trust the people to act."John Peter Atgeld

Agricultural Cooperatives’ Sustainability and the Relevance of Start-Up Support Programs: Evidence from Cooperatives’ Level in Morocco

The Moroccan agricultural cooperative sector is a key player in self-employment and income generation through territorial anchoring. The government’s “MOURAFAKA” program offers support for newly created cooperatives, including strategic diagnosis and training. This paper analyzes the impact of the MOURAFAKA program on the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives in Morocco. Using original data from a survey of 232 cooperatives and a second database of 1131 cooperatives, the study employs a methodology based on survival function analysis and Cox regression. The results show that the MOURAFAKA program improves the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives by strengthening their management, governance, and market access capabilities. The study also highlights the importance of internal factors such as management skills, leadership style, and cooperative size, as well as external factors such as strategic adaptability, in determining the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives. The policy implications of these findings suggest that upstream literacy programs and capacity-building initiatives for cooperative leaders, as well as downstream access to financing, marketing, and practical training, are crucial for ensuring the sustainability of cooperatives.

Minor Forest Produce Gathering & Sustainability of Tribal Livelihood Assets –Challenges and Issues in Kerala

This paper presentation is an attempt to understand the challenges and issues in protecting livelihood assets in relation to forest gathering of tribal communities in Kerala. The concept of protection of livelihood assets is one of the core concept of livelihood recovery processes necessitated basically in the event of calamities and other adverse events. The guidance note published by the UNDP on recovery processes is a detailed document on this topic. Forest gathering in Kerala is slowly dying out and is in a stage warranting immediate intervention for revival as if it is affected by adverse events. This study is therefore concentrated on identifying the livelihood assets based on Sustainable Livelihood Framework (SLF), which is a tool developed based on Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) formulated by Chambers & Conway, in 1991. The assets thus identified, in the broad classes of Human, Social, Natural Physical and Financial assets, are Skilled Human resources, Aboriginal Knowledge and Gathering Skills, Tribal Cooperatives and other self-help groups, Forest resources, Forest Dwelling Rights, other related Infrastructure Facilities and Cash Assistances. Each of this assets are discussed primarily based on hands-on experience and exposure of the paper presenter as an official associated with the operations of tribal cooperative sector in Kerala for a period of 5 years and wherever necessary historical data, related literatures and governmental reports are relied. Based on the discussions, reviews, and analysis of data, this paper put forth its findings and conclusions to the intended audience for necessary remedial steps and future studies.

Future scenario of Dairy Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (DEE) of Kerala

The present study was undertaken to forecast the future of dairy entrepreneurial ecosystem for a short term, medium term and long term in the state of Kerala (India) during 2020-21;owing to the high ranks of the state in dairy progressiveness, production systems and marketing infrastructure. Delphi survey was used to project the future into conceivable scenarios. Four likely scenarios were estimated for each period based on the important driving factors and their probability of occurrence ofchange. The constant factor taken to decide the scenario axis for the three periods was ‘dairy entrepreneurial growth’; while for the short term, the second contributing factor was ‘support services’; for medium term it was ‘cooperative sector’; and for the long term, it was ‘advanced technology’. The study presented the narration of the scenarios which can be utilized by policymakers and planners to design in advance the appropriate modifications and interventions to develop dairy entrepreneurship; and thereby create a desirable dairy entrepreneurial ecosystem for the state in the future.

Informal Saving Groups and Its Effect on Monetary Activities Of Nepal

The informal sector activities account for a significant proportion of production, consumption, and employment in the country. However, informal firms tend to be small and are unable to provide basic goods and services to the entire population. Additionally, informal workers are more likely to be poor and earn lower wages compared to their formal sector counterparts. The government of Nepal is actively working to address these issues, including the enforcement of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations in the banking, finance, and cooperative sectors. However, the enforcement of AML regulations should be approached cautiously to prevent the potential transfer of informal money to other sectors and to avoid security problems. The study aims to explore the relationship between various economic indicators and informal monetary activities in Nepal, with a focus on finding ways to regulate and formalize these activities. Large samples of 385 were surveyed through structured questionnaire. The informal economy in Nepal has important macroeconomic consequences, and the government is working to address the challenges it poses. However, the enforcement of AML regulations should be approached cautiously to prevent the potential transfer of informal money to other sectors and to avoid security problems. The study aims to explore the relationship between various economic indicators and informal monetary activities in Nepal, with a focus on finding ways to regulate and formalize these activities. Keywords: Informal monetary activities, Hidden economy, AML regulations, Small saving groups, Remittance