Co-operatives played a significant part of the global economy, and its success depends on the effectiveness of the co-operative board to perform their roles. This article is aimed at reviewing and synthesizing the literature of the last ten years in order to enhance our understanding of the factors that have affected the effectiveness of the board. A systematic review of the Scopus and Web of Science databases identified 13 related studies that respond to research questions, guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) method. An analysis of these articles resulted in four main themes – board composition, board characteristics, board structure and board process, and these four themes formed a total of 12 sub-themes. This study has three significant contributions. Firstly, it provides an overview of studies of the co-operative board. Second, this systematic review highlighted the factors impacting the board's effectiveness. Finally, derived from this systematic analysis, we draw the pattern of variables that were analyzed in assessing the efficacy of the co-operative board. The findings indicated that the studies of the co-operative board are still inadequate, and in the context of developing countries, empirical research lags even further behind. Most studies concentrate mainly on the effect of board characteristics, followed by board composition, board process and board structure. Some recommendations for future research are outlined to explore other related factors that may enhance the co-operative board's effectiveness, namely from the perspective of the resource provision role of directors.

Members' participation in co-operative governance is often seen as crucial to the organisation's operation and survival. However, there is still a dearth of a thorough knowledge of member participation and its aspects. Thus, this paper aims to synthesise the available research from the last ten years to enhance our knowledge of the patterns of the involvement of members in the governance of co-operative. Subsequently, the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses" approach was used to perform a systematic review of the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We discovered 12 relevant peer-reviewed publications that match the objectives of this study with four themes of members' participation identified. In general, the findings revealed that the majority of the study has mainly focused on members' participation at annual general meetings, while participation via holding positions as board members remain limited. This paper makes a significant contribution by providing a review of the study on member participation in cooperative governance, as well as the patterns of member participation that have been studied using the systematic review method. Some recommendations for future research are given to explore other elements of member participation in strategic decision-making, particularly as the co-operative board.

Co-operatives are seen as an essential economic platform for supporting development programs, and its viability is depending on members' active participation in co-operative governance. Since member participation in co-operative governance is fundamental to the organization's survival, it is necessary to review and synthesize studies from the last ten years in order to enhance our understanding of the components of member participation in co-operative governance. Following the “PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses)” technique, a comprehensive search of the Scopus and Web of Science databases discovered 13 relevant papers that match to the study objectives. An examination of the articles revealed two major aspects: the "supporter" who attends general meetings and the "believer" who serves on a board or committee, with these two themes forming a total of seven sub-themes. This study contributes significantly by providing an overview of the research trend in terms of member participation in cooperative governance. Second, the elements of member participation that have been studied are highlighted in this systematic review. The findings revealed that the majority of the studies focused mainly on members' participation in annual general meetings ("supporter"), with ten studies indicating that research on the participation of members serving on the board is still inadequate. Some recommendations for future research are provided to examine other elements of member participation, particularly their participation as the board members.

El gobierno de Malasia ha implementado una serie de programas de desarrollo comunitario, y este esfuerzo ha continuado con la introducción del Programa Desa Lestari. El programa Desa Lestari es la iniciativa de desarrollo comunitario más reciente del gobierno, que enfatiza la cooperación como una estrategia de desarrollo comunitario. Dada la posición de las cooperativas como fuerza impulsora detrás de esta iniciativa, es importante que la investigación actual examine el desempeño cooperativo, que depende de la capacidad de la junta para cumplir eficazmente sus funciones. Se han postulado varios factores relacionados con el directorio, y este estudio se ha centrado en los roles de provisión de recursos de los miembros del directorio derivados del capital humano y social, con la inclusión de una función de mediación de la participación del directorio. Este estudio adopta un enfoque de investigación cuantitativa utilizando un diseño de investigación de correlación. Aplicando un método de muestreo estratificado proporcionado, se recopilaron datos de cuestionarios distribuidos en línea y por correo. Luego se analizaron los datos de 226 respuestas elegibles de 38 cooperativas. Para analizar los datos se utilizó un enfoque de Modelado de ecuaciones estructurales de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM). En general, el desempeño de las cooperativas en el Programa Desa Lestari resultó ser moderado, con la mayoría de las cooperativas (ƒ = 21) con un desempeño de promedio a un nivel muy satisfactorio (51% y más). Curiosamente, a pesar de los altos niveles de capital humano y capital social de los encuestados en el estudio actual, los hallazgos revelaron que estos factores no tenían ningún impacto en el desempeño cooperativo, lo que a su vez influye en el papel mediador de la participación de la junta. Este estudio, sin embargo, sirve como investigación prospectiva, ya que es el primero en integrar la teoría de la dependencia de recursos y la teoría de la participación en la investigación de la efectividad de los miembros de la junta en el desempeño de las cooperativas, especialmente en el contexto de Malasia.

Co-operatives played a critical part in the community development initiative, and its viability is reliant on the board members' ability to carry out their roles effectively. Since board members are a vital body of the cooperative's internal governance, it is important to examine how they affect the cooperative's performance. Several factors have been proposed and based on prior research inferences, the majority of which have used the concept of corporate governance to identify the factors that influence the cooperative board's effectiveness, which has also been adopted in this article. Owing to the inconsistent findings and gaps in previous research, this article has focused on the role of board members' human and social capital in affecting cooperative performance. The research also presented board participation as a mediator between human and social capital and cooperative performance. This study employs resource dependence and participation theory as underpinning theories to support its assumptions and performs a literature review to synthesize empirical findings on related factors. SmartPLS software will be used to analyze the data and explore all relationships using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).