The Influence of Community Participation and Social Capital on the Establishment of the Merah Putih Village Cooperative with Community Interest as a Mediating Variable

Abstract

The establishment of village cooperatives depends not only on government initiatives but also on the readiness of the local community. Community participation and social capital are widely regarded as important social foundations, yet studies that examine the psychological mechanism linking these factors to cooperative establishment, particularly in the Merah Putih Village Cooperative program, remain limited. This study aims to analyze the effects of community participation and social capital on the establishment of the Merah Putih Village Cooperative, with community interest as a mediating variable. The study employed a quantitative causal associative approach involving 161 residents of Nagrak Village, Cianjur Regency, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 3. The results show that community participation and social capital each have a positive and significant effect on community interest and on the establishment of the cooperative, and that community interest also has a positive and significant effect on the establishment of the cooperative. Community interest partially mediates the effect of community participation (indirect effect = 0.136; p = 0.049) but does not mediate the effect of social capital (indirect effect = 0.105; p = 0.058). Community participation is the strongest predictor of community interest (β = 0.514). The model explains 69.6% of the variance in community interest and 70.7% of the variance in cooperative establishment.