Factors Affecting Rural Production Cooperatives’ Marketing Information System in Mazandaran Province

Abstract

This study designedto investigate the affecting factors on marketing information system in rural cooperatives in Mazandaran province. The target population was all managers of rural cooperatives in Mazandaran province (N=183), according to Krejcie and Morgan’s Table,125 persons were chosen as sample using sampling (n=125). The instrument of research was the questionnaire that its validity was established by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach alpha coefficient (0.73 to 0.97). The descriptive result of research indicated that the statue of marketing information system in rural cooperatives was at average level as perceived by the %40.8 of respondents' viewpoints. Accordingly, it was stated that status of rural cooperatives marketing information system was not in a proper and expected position. The results of the stepwise multiple regression showedthat four factors including information-communication, participation, personality and education were identified as factors that effect on the marketing information system. Meanwhile, participation factor (beta= 0.365) was most effective in explaining the dependent variable. The results revealed that 51.2 percent of variations in the dependent variable are identified bymentioned four factors.

Keywords

• marketing information system
• rural production cooperative
• mazandaran