Journal of Geographical Studies of Mountainous Areas

Journal of Geographical Studies of Mountainous Areas

Factors Affecting Intention of Agricultural Graduates to Self-Employment in Cooperative Organizations(Study case: Lorestan)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Saeed Gholamrezai 1
Fatemeh Rahimi 2
Yousof Azadi 3
1 Associate Prof. Department of Agriculture Economics and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
2 Assistant Prof. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
3 PhD. Graduate of Agricultural Developmant, Department of Agricultural Extension, Communication and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran
10.22034/gsma.2025.725042
Abstract
Introduction

Agricultural and employment have against wind in front of other sectors. This is evident with the annual entry of 800,000 job seekers into the labor market in the country and a projection of 10 million unemployed people. These are some of the challenges pertaining to development, both economic and social, in the plans up to the horizon of 2026. According to the Iranian Statistics Center, the average unemployment rate in 2022 equals 8.9%. Meanwhile, one of the sectors that assumes a special importance in the development of the country is agriculture and one of the sectors considered as key in the economy of developing countries. Hence, employment of agricultural graduates is one of the fundamental issues that need consideration by the planners and policymakers of the country. However, what can be done to make this sector climb up to an acceptable level in development?
With regards to this, different countries, Iran being among them, have provided different approaches meant to assist university graduates in securing employment. To organize unemployed into the production and service cooperatives, members of unemployment can access self-employment and participate in one or the other activity alongside their cooperation. But then, what is important in this regard is to know the characteristics and individual intentions that affect the decision-making process of people regarding membership in a cooperative, which may be an important input into future planning and policy-making system in this area. Hence, this study was carried out with the purpose of finding factors affecting the intention towards self-employment in cooperatives among agricultural graduates based on Social Cognitive Career Theory.
 

Methodology

Survey method was adopted in this study and the instrument of data collection was a questionnaire. The statistical population of present study was all the active members of the Agricultural and Natural Resources Engineering Organization of Lorestan Province (N= 500) and then 220 of them were selected for conducting this study through Krejcie and Morgan table. Instrument for data collection has been questionnaire, and supported by experts for its validity. Reliability was also proved with the help of Cronbach Alpha coefficient. For data analysis, SPSS26 and AMOS24 software would be used.
 

Results

With regard to the demographic variables of the respondents, it can be said that there were 63 males and 157 females, with an average age of 32.17 years and a standard deviation of 6.28. In addition, 39.5% indicated that they have a family background for self-employment, while 60.5% said no family background for self-employment.
The structural equation model was used to analyze the collected data. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate the measurement model and examine the reliability and validity of the model. The final results from the confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit for the measurement model and confirmed the results of the measurement model. Then, the structural model was estimated to test the research hypotheses. Results revealed self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on outcome expectations (support for the first hypothesis). This construct accounted for 72% of the variance in the outcome expectations construct. Self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on interests (supporting the second hypothesis) and accounts for 25% of the variance in interest. On the other hand, outcome expectations have no significant effect on interests (no support for Hypothesis 4). Self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests positively and significantly affect self-employment intention (supporting Hypotheses 3, 5, and 6). All these variables accounted for 59% variation in self-employment intention. It is worth noting that the variables of social support and barriers had no significant effect on self-employment intention, hence Hypotheses 7 and 9 were not supported. Also, social support had a positive and significant direct effect on self-efficacy (support for Hypothesis 8). This variable can explain 23% of the variation in self-efficacy. Finally, the social barriers variable has no significant effect on self-efficacy and was not supported by Hypothesis 10.
 

Discussion

This investigation addressed the identified factors affecting self-employment among graduates of Agricultural and Natural Resources Engineering Organization of Lorestan Province. The predicted variance contributed by the variables self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, and intention towards self-employment were 23%, 72%, 25%, and 59%, respectively. Variables like self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests had significant effects on the intention towards self-employment. Here, the variable self-efficacy accounts for much of the variance pertaining to intention towards self-employment. Interestingly, social support and social barriers were not found to significantly affect self-employment intention.
 

Conclusion

There is employment and unemployment. These two basic variables, or indicators, give an incisive estimate to gauge the level of development achieved by any society. One important variable, however, is that of the employment of university graduates. One way to curb the problem of unemployment for youth and university graduates, as well as to simultaneously generate an income for them, would be to empower their self-employment in the form of organizing cooperative ventures. On the other hand, determining the factors that are likely to affect the intentions and decision-making of youths and university graduates to invest in and work with cooperative organizations is also crucial.
 
Acknowledgments
The financial support of the department of Cooperative, Labour and Social Welfare of Lorestan Province under the number 43994 made this research possible. We are thus grateful to this department for supporting the research.
 
Keywords
Cooperative
self-employment
intention
social cognitive career theory
structural equation modeling
Lorestan
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Journal of Geographical Studies of Mountainous Areas
Volume 6, Issue 1 - Serial Number 21
Spring
Winter 2025
Pages 139-158