Study the Role of Entrepreneurship in the Development of Rural Cooperatives

Abstract 1
Important social and economic achievements of mankind have been the result of
participation; meanwhile cooperative organizations are more important because of
having more emphasis on human aspects. In fact, the cooperatives are an
appropriate tool for economic development that they can increase productivity and
incomes and improve people’s social situation. Despite the importance of
cooperatives, the preliminary review of their performance, especially in rural areas,
indicates that the cooperatives have faced many problems and they have failed to
achieve their predetermined goals. In such circumstances, many researchers and
experts believe that development of entrepreneurship in the cooperatives can play
an essential role in helping to develop and strengthen the cooperatives and
resolving their different problems. Considering the importance of this issue, the
main objective of this descriptive-analytic paper was to examine the role of
entrepreneurship in the development of rural cooperatives. The results showed that
there is a close relationship between cooperatives and entrepreneurship and indeed
entrepreneurship is considered one of the main preconditions for success of rural
cooperatives. The cooperatives can increase their effectiveness and efficiency and
perform more successfully by using the elements of entrepreneurship, such as
creativity, innovation, identifying and taking advantage of opportunities and risk
taking. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide required supports including finance,
legal, educational, advisory and informing from relevant organizations to develop
and foster entrepreneurship in the cooperatives.