Purpose - Recently, the management conditions of small independent retailers are getting worse everyday as large-scale marts and franchised convenience stores are increasing. The objective of this research is to find out the antecedents and consequences of cooperation in voluntary chain in order to enhance small independent retailer's competitiveness. Voluntary chains, also called affiliation or symbol groups, or allied group represent a high market shared in some European countries like Italy, France, and Germany. Nevertheless, there are still limitations in this research from academic fields. Drawing from network theory, the author investigates the relationship between antecedent factors in voluntary chain cooperation, such as participation benefits, justice of compensation, and autonomy in voluntary chain, and relationship specific asset. The author also attempts to examine the relationship between the relationship specific asset and cooperation of voluntary chain member shop and cooperation and consequence factors of voluntary chain cooperation, such as efficiency, group cohesiveness, and long-term relationship. Research design, data, and methodology - The author presented conceptual framework integrating the major antecedents and consequences of voluntary chain cooperation. The data were collected from 174 independent small retailers who joined K-voluntary chain. K-voluntary chain consists of small independent retailers. In accordance with their status, each entrepreneur associated with the voluntary group can own one or more outlets and can be a part of the life and the decision-making process of the group. This participation is not based on company turnover or on the number of outlets, but based on a one member, one vote system. To verify the research model and test hypotheses, the author carefully investigated the reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the proposed model. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 and AMOS structural equation modeling program. Results - The results of this study are as follows. First, as antecedent variables, participation benefits and justice of compensation have positive effect on the relationship specific assets of voluntary chain members. Second, voluntary chain members' relationship specific asset also directly related to the level of its cooperation to chain headquarter. Third, cooperation of voluntary chain member shop facilitates efficiency, group cohesiveness, and long-term relationship. Unexpectedly, there are no effect autonomy in voluntary chain to relationship specific asset. Conclusions - This research shows several theoretical and practical implications to both marketing scholars and marketers. In terms of theoretical implications, this study applies to network theory and network theory variables to explain the antecedent and consequence factors of cooperation in voluntary chain. From the point of view from business management, most of all, this study shows the way how to reinforce competitiveness of voluntary chain. Specifically, it is necessary for voluntary chain headquarter to give higher level of participation benefit and justice of compensation to its members. Second, the results also indicate what the consequence factors of cooperation in voluntary chain. In other words, to increase the level of marketing efficiency, group cohesiveness, long-term orientation in retail voluntary chain, and chain headquarter need to facilitate participants' cooperation.