Influence of Environmental Factors on Growth in Membership of Cooperative Societies in Imo State

Abstract

This research study sought to investigate the influence of environmental factors on growth in membership of cooperative societies in Imo State. The specific objective of the study is to assess the various environmental factors as they affect the growth in membership of cooperative societies in Imo State. The study was based on the descriptive survey design. The target population of this study included the management committee of all the cooperative societies in Imo State totaling about 14,000 societies. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the selection of location and cooperative businesses. In stage one, five local government areas each were randomly selected from the three senatorial zones (15 L.G.As). Secondly, within the local government areas, ten cooperative societies each were purposively selected (150 cooperative societies). The third stage entailed judgmental selection of Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers of the selected cooperatives and this gives a total of 450 respondents. The data collected for the research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistical tools such as table, percentage, mean, standard deviation and multiple regression. Cooperative membership growth is not significantly influenced by environmental factors in the study area (F-ratio = 347.339 Sig @ 0.000). Indeed, environmental factors such as external intervention, income of members, regulatory framework, location, market system and structure, industrial cluster and culture and tradition of the land were found to be especially statistically significant in explaining variations in cooperative membership growth. The researchers recommended that Cooperative practitioners should hold firm to their regulatory framework and aim towards sound competitive strategies of both horizontal and vertical integration to avoid collision and predation by bigger firms