A Study on the effect of Consulting, Education and Conflict Levels on the Competitiveness of Small Businesses Cooperative

Background/Objectives: Since 2012, cooperatives between small businesses have been increasing rapidly. Thus this study conducted an empirical analysis on the effect of education, consulting and conflict levels on cooperatives’ competitiveness. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The data used in this study consist of 290 valid samples of individual interviews based on standardized survey responses from 360 cooperative executives who received government support in 2014. Factor analysis was done using statistical packages SPSS21, Effects between variables was analyzed by structural equation model using AMOS21 statistical package. Findings: The main interests of existing studies are agricultural cooperatives and credit unions, but this study empirically analyzed by targeting commercial cooperatives. Also existing cooperative research concentrated on legal, institutional, or normative approaches. However, this study approached this research by placing importance on conflict management within a partnership, as well as the importance of education and consulting on securing the small business cooperatives early on, and on their continuous development and competitive growth. This study did confirm the importance and role of education and conflict management for the cooperatives. Education satisfaction levels do not significantly affect conflict levels, but do significantly affect competitiveness. Conflict levels significantly affect competitiveness. However, consulting satisfaction level was found to not have a significant influence on conflict levels within a partnership as well as competitiveness. This coincides with the additional analysis on the relationship between consulting satisfaction levels and consultant competencies. Results revealed that current consulting services are insufficient for establishing cooperative business models. Application/Improvement: Current consulting services do not have a significant effect on conflict management or cooperative competitiveness. This study offers an operational perspective on this issue: current cooperative consulting services require improvement.