Determinants of the Acceptance of Sustainable Production Strategies among Dairy Farmers: Development and Testing of a Modified Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was applied by means of Structural Equation Modelling to testing various hypotheses on attitudes and intentions of dairy farmers towards three novel sustainable production strategies, as well as the influence of organic practices and collaborative behaviours, such as information sharing with supply-chain partners. Data on the acceptance of three sustainable production strategies, namely "Agro-forestry", "Alternative protein source", and "Prolonged maternal feeding" were collected by a survey of dairy farmers in six European Union (EU) countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, United Kingdom). We found that perceived usefulness is the key determinant of acceptance, while the intention to adopt a sustainable production strategy may derive from the influence of opinions (and behaviours) of relevant others (e.g., leading dairy farmers, family members, advisors) showing the role of interactions among farmers and other stakeholders in the adoption of innovations. Finally, the perceived usefulness of all of the investigated strategies is higher for organic farmers, while collaborative patterns reduce the impact of subjective norm on usefulness and overall acceptance. Our findings should encourage policy makers to consider the important role of supply chain management practices, including collaboration, to enhance the sustainability of dairy farming systems.

Food for Hope: The Role of Personal Resources in Farmers’ Adoption of Green Technology

“…Intellectual resources are needed to fully understand the needs for innovation and its perceived effects, whereas social resources have been found to affect (positively or negatively) adoption decisions and perceptions of the innovation [19,30]. Hence, we hypothesize that positive emotions may influence farmers' establishment of intellectual and social resources that have been found to affect adoption [19,[30][31][32], thus potentially increasing their likelihood of adopting innovative technologies.…”

“…Furthermore, adoption of some agricultural methods such as organic farming and the cultivation of genetically engineered crops also requires a new set of skills, making it possible only for those capable of and interested in acquiring them. Theoretical modelling and empirical evidence suggest, moreover, that the rejection of efficient innovations may also be connected to the adopter's social context (including peer imitation practices) as well as to powerful external influences [19,30,32]. Finally, some farmers seem to be willing to forego profits to adopt conservation practices [33], thus pointing to an ideological feature in this decision-making process as well.…”

“…Likewise, attitudes toward risk and the extent of uncertainty involved in adoption of technology might affect adoption decisions (see a review of theoretical and empirical literature by [31]. Moreover, when studying dairy farmers in the EU Naspetti, et al [32] described farmer's perceived usefulness of the technology as a key determinant of acceptance and intention to adopt the technology. A few studies describe primary adopters as self-sufficient, intuitive, and more tolerant of ambiguity (Rogers, 2003;Feaster, 1968).…”

“…They suggest that overall positive emotions toward an innovation are positively related to the effectiveness of its implementation. Specifically, perceived usefulness has been shown as a key determinant of acceptance of agricultural innovation, and the intention to adopt it [32].…”

“…First, empirical evidence suggests that farmers' decision to adopt innovative technology is related to its anticipated desired impacts (e.g., perceived usefulness, profit, farm performance) [13,15,32,46]. Studies suggest that the level of personal hope spurs anticipation of a better future; thus, more hopeful farmers would be encouraged to set more complicated goals and take actions [70][71][72].…”