SOURCE:

Faculty: Management Sciences
Department: Co-opreative Economics And Management

CONTRIBUTORS:

Okoro, C.N;
Akubilo, C.J.C;

ABSTRACT:

This study assessed and analyzed the factors influencing sustainability of cooperative businesses in Imo state of Nigeria. It was necessitated by high mortality rate of Nigerian Cooperatives, where most of the cooperatives have gone moribund and many dwindling in the same direction. To this end their presence is sparingly noticed in contributing their traditional role to economic development. To make the study feasible sustainability was decomposed into environmental, economic, social and cultural determinants with the indicators as membership growth, profitability, cooperative resilience and age of the cooperative respectively. The researcher formulated four objectives that guided the study thus: “to assess the influence of environmental factors on growth in membership of cooperatives; to assess the influence of economic factors on profitability of cooperative businesses; to assess the influence of social factors on cooperative resilience in the community; and to determine the influence of cultural factors on age of cooperative. The study employed a survey design and used a multi-stage sampling technique to select 450 respondents for the study. Descriptive statistical tool was used to analyze the research questions and profile of the investigated cooperatives, while regression model was used to test the formulated hypotheses respectively. From the results, it was established that environmental, economic, social and cultural factors, have significant influence on the sustainability (membership growth, profitability, resilience and age of the cooperative) of cooperative businesses in the study area, evident by the F-ratios which measures the overall significance of the independent variables to the dependent variables thus: 347.339 significant at 0.000; 201.608 significant at 0.000; 352.045 significant at 0.000 and 660.266 significant at 0.000 respectively. From the findings, the researcher recommended a firm hold on cooperative regulatory framework with sound competitive strategies of vertical and horizontal integration; a sensitization for effective membership drive, diversification of product mix, and consequent expansion of business volume to compete favourably with other investor-owned firms; an upholding of the cultural norms of the business location; and public mobilization and sensitization programme by the government on real cooperative ideology and promotional procedures.