Assessing effective factors in development of entrepreneurship in agricultural cooperatives of Zanjan province

Nowadays, entrepreneurship is considered as the engine of economic and cultural development of society. Entrepreneurial organization can provide an environment in which all members can participate in entrepreneurial affairs. According to 44th principle of the constitution, a special place is given to the cooperative sector in all sectors including agriculture. The purpose of this study was identifying factors affecting the development and strengthening entrepreneurship in agricultural production cooperatives in Zanjan province. A descriptive-correlation survey approach was used in this study. The study population consists of agricultural cooperative managers. Research samples was selected using randomly stratified method with using Cochrane formula ( n=165). Reliability of instruments was determined by pilot test and calculating Cronbach alpha coefficient. Cronbach alpha values were 0.82. Validity of instrument was determined by investigating the attitudes of specialists in university and cooperative office in Zanjan. Results showed that from the perspective of managers the most important factors in strengthening entrepreneurship in agricultural cooperatives are: Providing financial support and tax breaks, reform the banking laws and making regulations to adjust with entrepreneurs conditions and preparing the document of national entrepreneurship development. Results also demonstrated that there is significant relationship between the entrepreneurial scores of managers and education level of board members, the total number of cooperatives and success level of cooperatives. One-way analysis of variance showed that there is significantly different between entrepreneurial scores of agricultural cooperatives in cities in province. (c) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.