School cooperative societies in Malaysia: The inconspicuous and unique retail format with promising potentials

Ong, L.D. and Tay, A. (2011) School cooperative societies in Malaysia: The inconspicuous and unique retail format with promising potentials. In: 6th Asia Pacific Retail Conference Malaysia, 14-15 Sep 2011, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

[img]
Preview
 PDF
53-OngLinDar.pdf - Published Version
Download (160kB)

Abstract

Whenever individuals discuss about the dynamics of retail businesses in Malaysia, very few would include the activities and economic contributions of the school cooperative societies. This inconspicuous but unique retail format has been in existence for decades in the country. The school cooperatives have since grown exponentially in terms of numbers, memberships, profits, and activities. Currently, there are over 2,136 of such societies and they are one of most popular co-curricular activities amongst secondary school students in Malaysia. Together they have accumulated a total of nearly RM19 million in paid up capital and assets worth more than RM200 million (Utusan Online, 2011). Young secondary students, between 13 and 17 years of age, are members and shareholders of these self-reliant and democratic retail societies. Most of them actively participate and support these, “by the people and for the people” cooperative societies for mutual benefits. While some of the more senior students with leadership potentials are nominated to be the board members of their school cooperatives, the rest become committee or ordinary members who either assist in selling or buying stationery and books from their respective small but convenient retail outlets within the premises of their schools.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Funders: UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Retail format; School cooperative societies
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Business and Economics
Depositing User: Mr. Mohd Samsul Ismail
Date Deposited: 18 Feb 2015 02:34
Last Modified: 18 Feb 2015 02:34
URI: http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/12817

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
UM Research Repository is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.