Mediating and moderating role of socioeconomic and technological factors in assessing farmer`s attitude towards adoption of Industry 4.0 technology

Abstract

Purpose

Agriculture is a vital sector for every country, especially for a country like India, where the majority of the population is dependent on agriculture as their earning source. Technological improvements in agriculture will increase output with proper forecasting of input resources. In this study, the author tries to investigate the attitude of end users (farmers) about the use of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies.

Design/methodology/approach

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is used to assess the behavioral aspects. The significance of socioeconomic and technological factors is highlighted, providing the study with a thorough understanding of farmers' decision-making processes. A research questionnaire was developed for data collection, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the results using AMOS and SPSS software.

Findings

A total of 371 survey responses were collected. The results demonstrate that the hypothesis regarding UTAUT model components is validated, while several mediating hypotheses are not supported, indicating that they are not significant in farmers' decision-making.

Originality/value

In this study, socioeconomic and technological factors are considered to be mediating and moderating elements between the constructs of the UTAUT model. Increasing the accuracy and reliability of our study by integrating mediating and moderating variables. This study assists industry specialists in understanding the elements that farmers consider while switching toward new technologies.

Citation

Jain, M., Soni, G., Mangla, S.K., Verma, D., Toshniwal, V.P. and Ramtiyal, B. (2024), "Mediating and moderating role of socioeconomic and technological factors in assessing farmer`s attitude towards adoption of Industry 4.0 technology", British Food Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-12-2023-1139