Title: The collaboration pattern, trust relationship, and transferring and learning willingness: evidence of China's agribusiness and farmers

Authors: Ya-Nan Ma; Song Huang

Addresses: Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Rd., Guangzhou, China ' Department of Marketing and Logistics, College of Economics and Management, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Rd., Guangzhou, China

Abstract: Agribusiness, as a representative of the private sector, has played an important role in agricultural technology diffusion. However, little research focuses on agricultural technology extension between private sector and farmers. In this paper, we try to explore the impact of collaboration pattern and trust on the learning willingness of the farmers and the agribusiness's knowledge transfer intention. The survey and literature research methodology are employed. One hundred seventy six valid questionnaires were collected and OLS regression analysis is applied to answer whether collaboration pattern and trust have an impact on the learning willingness of the farmers and the agribusiness's knowledge transfer intention. The findings show that the trust between the farmers and agribusiness impacts the learning willingness of the farmers and the enterprises' knowledge transfer intention positively. The collaboration pattern affects the agribusiness's knowledge transfer intention significantly. The tighter the cooperation between the farmers and agribusiness, the stronger the agribusiness's knowledge transfers intention. The farmers' learning willingness has no significant difference under different collaboration patterns.

Keywords: agribusiness; knowledge transfer; trust; collaboration patterns; learning willingness; China; farmers; agriculture; technology diffusion; agricultural technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2014.063587

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2014 Vol.20 No.1/2/3, pp.31 - 46

Published online: 29 Jul 2014 *

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