Influence of performance expectancy on commercial farmers’ intention to use mobile-based communication technologies for agricultural market information dissemination in Uganda
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-06-2016-0037 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| Pages | 346-363 |
| Author | Benard Engotoit,Geoffrey Mayoka Kituyi,Musa Bukoma Moya |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Information & communications technology |
Inuence of performance
expectancy on commercial
farmers’ intention to use
mobile-based communication
technologies for agricultural
market information
dissemination in Uganda
Benard Engotoit, Geoffrey Mayoka Kituyi and
Musa Bukoma Moya
Department of Business Computing, Makerere University Business School,
Kampala, Uganda
Abstract
Purpose – This paper to examine the relationship between performance expectancy and behavioural
intention to use mobile-based communication technologies for agricultural market information
dissemination in Uganda.
Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive eld survey method was adopted. A total of 302
commercial farmers and agribusiness traders in Eastern Uganda participated in the study from whom
data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis,
correlation and regression analyses were used in the study.
Findings – The ndings reveal a signicant positive relationship between performance expectancy
and behavioural intentions to use mobile-based communication technologies for agricultural
information access and dissemination. This implies that, commercial farmers’ behavioural intentions to
use mobile-based communication technologies for agricultural market information dissemination and
access will be inuenced if they anticipate mobile-based communication technologies to offer greater
performance in their daily transactions.
Research limitations/implications – This study was conducted in the context of resource
constrained countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, however reecting knowledge from other
contexts. The study was conducted with a structured questionnaire being the main data collection tool,
and this limited the study from collecting views outside the questions asked in the questionnaire. The
variables studied could not be analysed for a long time, given that the study was cross-sectional in
nature.
Practical implications – The study provides recommendations on how to further boost farmers’
behavioural intentions to use mobile-based communication technologies for agricultural information
dissemination. Policy makers need to ensure that policies are put in place that encourage third party
software developers and telecommunication companies to provide software products and solutions that
are benecial to the commercial farmers and can enable them complete their agricultural transactions in
time.
Social implications – The study provides critical literature on the inuence of performance
expectancy on commercial farmers’ behavioural intentions to use mobile-based communication
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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JSIT
18,4
346
Received 8 June 2016
Revised 8 September 2016
Accepted 8 September 2016
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.18 No. 4, 2016
pp.346-363
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-06-2016-0037
technologies for agricultural market information access and dissemination in resource constrained
settings.
Originality/value – It is noted that farmers in Uganda are slowly progressing to newer mobile
information and communication technology tools for market information access and dissemination;
however, little is known as to why there is slow adoption of these mobile technologies for agricultural
purposes; yet policy makers need to come up with proper strategies to encourage wide scale use of
mobile technologies for agricultural market purposes.
Keywords Agricultural information dissemination, Behavioural intentions to use,
Mobile-based communication technologies (MBCTs), Performance expectancy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Agriculture in many resource-constrained countries like Uganda is a great contributor
in the ght against poverty, especially among the rural poor as reported by Ministry of
Agriculture (2010). According to Masuki et al. (2010), the agricultural sector is
contributing up to 20 per cent to the gross domestic product of Uganda, and so far, it is
able to provide both formal and informal employment to over 73 per cent of the Uganda
population in the sector. Therefore, to achieve an improvement in the livelihood as well
as the economic growth resulting to alleviation of poverty levels in Uganda, emphasis
and resources are being availed in the sector so as to improve the performance of
agriculture.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have greatly impacted on
several sectors in many economies both in developing and developed countries.
According to Maumbe (2010), ICTs are continuously being deployed in many sectors
including education, health, banking, e-government, tourism and the trend continues as
well to the agriculture sector. Studies have indicated that ICTs are playing a great role in
improving the performance of agriculture (O’Donnell, 2013;Fu and Akter, 2011;Stienen
et al., 2007). Katengeza et al. (2011) asserts that commonly used mobile technology tools
such as mobile phones’ SMS applications, internet/Web-based applications, interactive
video can be used as modern information sources in many sectors of developing
countries. Information for agriculture is a very important tool in agricultural marketing,
and in the developed world, farmers have been able to gain access to timely and accurate
agricultural market information (Kizilaslan, 2006). Agricultural market information
includes pricing information for agricultural products, information on weather, crop
advisory, fertilizer availability and updates on government schemes, information on
new technology, information on better farming practices and better management
(Nyareza and Archie, 2012;O’Donnell, 2013). According to (Mohammadi et al., 2011),
having access to up-to-date and accurate agricultural information is key to improving on
the productivity and marketing efforts of farmers. With the right information at the
right time, farmers are able to make informed decisions on which products to produce,
where to sell their products, what prices to charge and when to sell their farm products
thereby avoiding exploitation from the intermediaries.
However, in many resource-constrained countries like Uganda, farmers are still faced
with challenges in accessing agricultural market information, despite the existence of
ICT tools and especially mobile technologies (Masuki et al., 2010). Farmers are faced
with constraints such as use of intermediaries/middlemen to get market information and
end up exploited (Masuki et al., 2010), and the lack of information on opportunities for
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Inuence of
performance
expectancy
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