Evoking Agriculture Entrepreneurship: How Younger and Older Farmers Differ

Exploring innovation adoption behavior for sustainable development of Mediterranean tree crops

Introduction

The combination of knowledge, personal skills and company resources influences, all things being equal, such as the availability of new technologies, market conditions and other factors external to the company, farmers in their innovation choices. This study is an attempt to understand which psychological constructs influence the decision-making process of farmers specialized in typical Mediterranean crops with regard to innovation. Previous studies on the adoption of agricultural innovations have often considered socio economic characteristics and ignored the underlying motivational factors that influence the behavioral intention of farmers.

Methods

This study adopted three socio-psychological constructs, Attitude (ATT), Subjective Norm (SN), and Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), derived from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and proposed three new constructs, Perceived Innovations Characteristics (PIC), Benefits (B), and Transferability (T), thus using an Extended Model of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Results

The outcome of the multiple regression revealed that farmers' intention (I) to adopt sustainable irrigation innovations is positively influenced by attitude (ATT), subjective norm (SN), and perceived innovation characteristics (PIC). This last construct had mediating effects on the indirect relationships between PBC, benefits (B), transferability (T), and intention (I).

Discussion

The results provide numerous insights, useful both for outlining the demand for innovation and for calibrating future policies aimed at the primary sector, especially on the sustainable management of irrigation resources. In particular, the analyses carried out highlight the importance of factors external to the company as key levers in shaping the demand for innovations.

Urban–Rural Comparison of the Association between Unsupportive Relationships, Perceived Stress, Authentic Self-Presentation, and Loneliness among Young Adults in Taiwan

This study examined and compared how unsupportive relationships, perceived stress, and authentic self-presentation influence loneliness and what differences exist between these relationships across urban and rural young adults in Taiwan. In total, 356 young adults (188 urban and 168 rural) were investigated, and partial least squares structural equation modelling was used in this study. The results indicated that authentic self-presentation directly and negatively affects loneliness in the urban group, but only indirectly affects loneliness in the rural group through unsupportive relationships and perceived stress. Unsupportive relationships and perceived stress in both the urban and rural groups positively affect their loneliness. In addition, multiple group analysis revealed that significant differences only existed between the effects of authentic self-presentation on unsupportive relationships between urban and rural young adults.