An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Understanding Farmers’ Behavioral Intentions Towards Using Agricultural E‑commerce

Abstract

The emergence of agricultural e-commerce can solve the challenges of agricultural marketing, especially in developing countries such as Iran. This study aimed to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) through adding the variables of social influence and facilitating conditions to understand farmers’ behavioural intention towards using gricultural commerce. This descriptive-correlational research was conducted by a cross-sectional survey. The statistical population was composed of citrusgrowers in Jahrom, Iran (N = 3566). The stratified random sampling method was used to select 360 respondents for the survey. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire whose face, convergence, and discriminant validity were confirmed. Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were estimated using SPSS24 and AMOS24 software, respectively, to examine the reliability of the research tool (0.75<α<0.85). The results showed that the extended form of the TAM constructs was significant in explaining farmersbehavioural intention. Attitude, perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions, social influence, and perceived ease of use accounted for 50.3% of the variance in behavioural intention. The hypotheses of the extended TAM constructs showed that social influence and facilitating conditions had a positive and significant effect on intention towards using agricultural e‐commerce. In this context, the government and agricultural e‐commerce planners need to raise awareness among all social influence groups about the benefits of using agricultural e‐commerce through all media. In addition, it is recommended to provide farmers with technical and educational e-commerce facilities.