Antecedents and Consequences of Cooperation in Retail Voluntary Chain

Purpose – Recently, the management conditions of small independent retailers are getting worse everyday as large-scale marts and franchised convenience stores are increasing. The objective of this research is to find out the antecedents and consequences of cooperation in voluntary chain in order to enhance small independent retailer's competitiveness. Voluntary chains, also called affiliation or symbol groups, or allied group represent a high market shared in some European countries like Italy, France, and Germany. Nevertheless, there are still limitations in this research from academic fields. Drawing from network theory, the author investigates the relationship between antecedent factors in voluntary chain cooperation, such as participation benefits, justice of compensation, and autonomy in voluntary chain, and relationship specific asset. The author also attempts to examine the relationship between the relationship specific asset and cooperation of voluntary chain member shop and cooperation and consequence factors of voluntary chain cooperation, such as efficiency, group cohesiveness, and long-term relationship. Research design, data, and methodology – The author presented conceptual framework integrating the major antecedents and consequences of voluntary chain cooperation. The data were collected from 174 independent small retailers who joined K-voluntary chain. K-voluntary chain consists of small ndependent retailers. In accordance with their status, each entrepreneur associated with the voluntary group can own one or more outlets and can be a part of the life and the decision-making process of the group. This participation is not based on company turnover or on the number of outlets, but based on a one member, one vote system. To verify the research model and test hypotheses, the author carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed model. The data were analyzed by us