The Antecedents of Willingness to Adopt and Pay for the IoT in the Agricultural Industry: An Application of the UTAUT 2 Theory

Yan Shi, Abu Bakkar Siddik, Mohammad Masukujjaman, Guangwen Zheng, Muhammad Hamayun and Abdullah Mohammed Ibrahim
Additional contact information
Yan Shi: College of Economics and Management, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China
Mohammad Masukujjaman: Department of Business Administration, Northern University Bangladesh, Banani C/A, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh
Guangwen Zheng: School of Economics and Management, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology (SUST), Weiyang District, Xi’an 710021, China
Muhammad Hamayun: Department of Management Science and Commerce, Bacha Khan University Charsadda, Charsadda 25100, Pakistan
Abdullah Mohammed Ibrahim: Department of Business Administration, Northern University Bangladesh, Banani C/A, Dhaka 1213, Bangladesh

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: This paper aims to examine the factors influencing the willingness of Bangladeshi farmers to adopt and pay for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the agricultural sector by applying the theoretical framework of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT 2). To this end, the study employed a quantitative research methodology and obtained data from 345 farmers from the northern districts of Bangladesh. Using a cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling method, a study of premium fruit growers was undertaken to assess IoT use in agriculture, and the primary survey data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach via AMOS 26. The study confirmed that effort expectancy, performance expectancy, facilitating condition, hedonic motivation, government support, price value, personal innovativeness, and trust influence the willingness of Bangladeshi farmers to adopt the IoT. Additionally, predictors such as trust and willingness to adopt were observed to influence the willingness to pay for the IoT, while the construct ‘performance expectancy’ produced no effect. The study also revealed that the willingness to adopt moderates the association between performance expectancy, price value, and willingness to pay for the IoT. This research has novel implications because it investigates the behavior of rural customers with respect to innovation adoption, which in this case is the IoT in agriculture. It outlines precise reasons for the willing adoption of the IoT in agriculture, which will, in turn, assist marketers of IoT technology in the design of appropriate marketing strategies to increase acceptance in rural areas. Using the proposed model that incorporates farmers’ willingness to pay, this empirical study takes the first step in examining whether farmers in a developing economy such as Bangladesh will adopt and pay for the IoT.

Keywords: agriculture; internet of things; willingness to pay; willingness to use; UTAUT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6640/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6640/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6640-:d:826842

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().