Market Orientation and Entrepreneurial Proclivity as Antecedents of Innovative Behaviour: Implications for Cocoa Farmers in Ghana

Abstract

Despite the increasing importance of innovation in literature, there is no agreement about its antecedents. This clearly makes it difficult and risky for cocoa farmers to choose suitable strategies to adopt, develop and promote successful innovations to fit their farm situations. The research questions were aimed at assessing the level of the entrepreneurial proclivity of cocoa farmers, their level of market orientation, their level of innovative behavior, and the influence of entrepreneurial proclivity and market orientation on innovative behavior. Cocoa farmers were sampled from all the six Cocoa Regions in Ghana. In total, 370 cocoa farmers, who participated in the Farmer Business School, were sampled using the multi-stage sampling procedure. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multiple linear regression). The study showed evidence that market orientation and entrepreneurial proclivity can be considered as antecedents of innovation with the key factors being, customer emphasis, intelligence dissemination, and market responsiveness. The study recommends improved flexibility in the cocoa marketing system of Ghana giving attention to the systems of customer/export options available to cocoa farmers.