Investment, Employment and Financial Performance Evidence from Cooperative Enterprises of Fars province

Investing huge resources in different parts of economic and industrial sectors to increase and promote public welfare and also, provide opportunities for country`s reserves’ growth. Therefore, identifying accurate opportunities for investment is critical, since it helps investors to know the maximum benefits to the economy coupled with the greatest influences in removing the country`s economic problems and difficulties, especially in employment. This article investigates the relationship between investments, employment and the financial performance of the active cooperative enterprises of Fars province in Iran. Based on the considered conditions, 120 firms were selected from the population on the basis of the classified random sampling method during the period 2006-2011. The findings indicate that there is a positive and meaningful relationship between investment and employment in cooperative enterprises. Also, the results show that there is a significant difference among the financial performance of cooperative enterprises in different sectors on the basis of invested capital. Specifically, the increasing investments in agricultural and industrial sectors have led to higher Return On Assets (ROA) ratio.