A Behavioral Approach to Identify Barriers to Adoption of New Technology: A Case Study of Low-input Turfgrasses

Abstract

Adopting eco-friendly technologies, such as converting lawns to alternative low-input grass species, can reduce household expenditures and mitigate negative environmental impacts at the same time. However, the rate of adoption of these technologies has not been as high as expected. This study develops a behavioral framework to identify barriers to new technology adoption by incorporating both prospect theory and present bias. We apply the framework in a choice experiment to investigate the relative importance of several factors that shape decisions associated with adoption of low-input turfgrass. We find that loss aversion plays a significant role. Though consumers exhibit present bias, long-term benefits still matter to them. Insights from the behavior model suggest that marketing and government programs that promote cost–benefit-efficient technologies should focus on eliminating or reducing potential losses caused by product failure.

Precision Turfgrass Irrigation: Capturing Spatial Soil Moisture Patterns with ECa and Drone Data

“…However, for general sports fields, parks, recreation areas and suburban residential lawns, there is little or no income from crops or sporting activities that could pay for soil moisture mapping for the development of spatial zones. Also, residential customers are risk-averse and are much more likely to be willing to buy a smart sprinkler controller than make the significant investment of converting their irrigation infrastructure to valve-in-head technology or replanting their lawn to a low-input turfgrass [46,47]. Therefore, relatively less expensive means of mapping spatial patterns in soil moisture need to be found, especially those that could be somewhat automated Another potential challenge with mapping spatial soil moisture zones for turfgrass is that within agriculture, it has been shown that temporally variable irrigation zones may be needed, because zones do not stay static once variable management practices are used [25].…”