Article 33 of the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia positioned co-operative as a pillar and backbone of the national economy. To optimally function as the pillar and backbone of the economy, the co-operatives should be managed efficiently and productively. Considering their pivotal roles in the Indonesian economy, this study is aimed at empirically measuring efficiency and productivity of the co-operatives across 33 provinces nationwide. Three inputs (i.e., own capital, external financing, and board size) and one output (co-operative surplus) over the period 2010-2015 are analyzed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with Malmquist Index. The study documented that the co-operatives were highly inefficient, indicated by the average level of inefficiency of 47.6%. Out of the co-operatives in 33 provinces, 42.42% were found to record efficiency level of less than 50% and only 12.12% of them were fully efficient. In addition, the study also documented that, of 33 provinces, only the co-operatives in 14 provinces were found to experience an increase in their total factor productivity. The co-operatives in the province of East Nusa Tenggara recorded the highest productivity progress by 49.9%, while the co-operative in the province of Bangka Belitung recorded the highest productivity regress by -24.4%. Overall, the productivity level of the co-operatives only slightly increased by 9.9% over the study period nationwide, which was mainly contributed by an increase in technical efficiency. These findings implied that to further enhance the productivity level of the co-operatives, improving their pure efficiency should be prioritized, followed by enhancing their scale efficiency and technical efficiency. The co-operatives should provide regular training for their staff, professional management, adopt advanced technology, and enlarge their size by merging small co-operatives become a larger entity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.