Thesis, Undergraduate (B.S. Agribusiness Economics)-- University of the Philippines, Mindanao

Cooperatives, as business entity, aimed not just the development of the cooperative but also the welfare of its members as well. However, a major constraint to development was lack of funds to make the cooperative operate efficiently and render its services to its members effectively. Two cooperatives were used as cases for this study, the Nabunturan Integrated Cooperative (NICO) and the Visayan Village Tagum Rural Waterworks and Multi Services Cooperative (VITRUWASCO). The main goal of this study was to measure the opportunity cost of patronage refund and dividend distribution of cooperatives in order to know the value of this portion of the net surplus if plowed back to the cooperative. Using Return on Equity and Return on Sales as tools for computing the opportunity cost, the results showed that the patronage refund and dividend comprised a substantial amount of the cash flow of the cooperatives 'operation which could be used to fulfil the working capital requirement of the cooperative. The factors for the distribution of patronage refund and dividend were also examined. Results showed that dividend policy, net surplus, debt to equity ratio, and cash flow of the cooperative affects the distribution of patronage and dividend. By measuring the maximum sustainable growth of the cooperative, the researcher found out that if there was high reinvestment of net surplus in the cooperative, the net surplus at the end of the year will increase.