Currently, the use of websites in the firms of the Spanish agrifood sector has not become widespread despite the possible benefits to be derived from their adequate integration and management within the firms. Among these advantages, the increase in the quality of the services offered and the improvement in the relations with their stakeholders should be highlighted. In this context, the objective of the present work is to determine to what extent websites are used by firms in the agrifood sector of Spain, analysing the background which explains why they are adopted and the consequences of introducing them. To do so, a theoretical framework is posed which allows these factors to be identified, and an empirical study is carried out with Spanish agrifood firms. The results of the work indicate that the adoption of websites will be favoured when the directors of the firm are higher qualified, the firm is bigger in size, the firm’s function is distribution, and when the relative advantage and technology compatibility is perceived, among others. Technology adoption consequences analysis suggests that the benefits of adoption are related with improving the relationships with suppliers, customers, owning partners and, in general, the quality of the services offered by the firm.
In a society such as today’s, where constant changes occur, knowledge and innovation have become the principal motors driving the economy (
The Web has become one of the most important means of sharing information from business to business and from business to consumer (
In this context, different authors (
In Spain, 98.3% of firms had access to the Web (
Despite the advantages afforded by a corporative website to firms, its use has not become widely adopted (
In this context, the objective of this work was to determine the degree of website use in Spanish agrifood firms, additionally analysing the background which explains website adoption and the consequences of their introduction.
Defining the factors that condition the adoption of a technological innovation has become a critical aspect for researchers who have sought to explain the adoption process (
The IDT assumes that the individuals adopt at different times, since their perceptions regarding the general attributes of an innovation differ. This is due, in most cases, to the fact that adoption occurs when the perception of the benefits of the innovation has been legitimised as it has been adopted by the majority of a social system’s members. In this context, the individuals who adopt later than the innovator group may only be doing so in order to not fall behind their competitors, even if they have yet to perceive the benefits of adoption. For this reason, innovations often bring unwanted consequences, or their effects are not as expected (
In the literature regarding innovation adoption, the technology attributes of
Other personal or firm characteristics are considered with the intention of studying in detail the magnitude of the factors determining the decision to adopt. Regarding the personal characteristics, some authors have included variables in their adoption models such as the academic level (
Among the characteristics of the firms that affect the decisions to adopt ICT, the most frequently used is the firm’s size (
The study population used in this work is composed of the 26,203 agrifood firms in Spain in 2009, of which some 88% had e-mail (
For information gathering, an online survey was used in the form of a questionnaire sent by e-mail to the managers of the firms between January and March 2009. The process consisted of first sending the questionnaire to all the firms within the work universe. Subsequently it was sent on two further occasions as reminders.
The questionnaire was structured into three principal blocks which covered items related to: 1) general information, on the profile of the respondent and economic aspects of the firm; 2) information to evaluate the degree of importance that the respondent gives to achieving certain strategic objectives for his/her firm; and 3) information relating to the perception of the innovation’s attributes “before and after” its adoption.
When the data collection process had finished a total of 119 properly completed questionnaires had been received, which means that for a 95% confidence level, the sample error is less than 9% for the most unfavourable case of intermediate proportions (
The analysis of the factors influencing the decision to adopt a website was carried out using Logit
where
where
The estimation in logit models chooses parameters that maximize the likelihood of observing the sample values. Thus, the regression coefficients can be interpreted as in linear models, where
When attempting to model a dichotomous endogenous variable the possibility to use the Probit models also exists. However, both methods will yield similar inferences (
Namely, the adoption of websites would be specified as:
where
To define the dependent variable, the respondents were asked if their firm had or did not have a website. This information was converted into a dummy variable which gives the firms the value of 0 if the firm does not have a website and 1 to those which use websites.
The independent variables were defined in accordance with a series of personal characteristics of the managers and of the firm; to firm characteristics, including the importance that the respondents gave to achieving certain strategic objectives; and to the degree of agreement with some statements drafted in the form of barriers, associated with the characteristics of the technology.
The answers regarding opinions and perceptions about the technology employed a multi-item scale from 0 to 10, where no importance or total disagreement was codified with a value of 0, while great importance or total agreement was codified with a value of 10. In this sense, total agreement with the statements associated to achieving business objectives (
The number of items used to measure the technology barriers to adopting this technology has been reduced using a factor analysis (
Factor 1, denominated “
Seventy-eight percent of the firms were considered as website users.
Analysis of the results for the adoption model confirms the expected effect of the variable
With regard to the firm characteristics, the positive coefficient for the variables
The firm function included in the model that contributes to explaining the adoption relates to those firms dedicated to distributing agrifood goods (
On the other hand, the unclear relationship between firm objectives and their effect over the adoption is confirmed in the model. Most of the objectives have not proven to be significant towards adoption, despite the consideration that Internet presence and the advances experienced by it recently can provide a source of competitive advantage for agrifood firms (
With regard to the expected effects, the barriers included in the model confirm our expectations through the factors
In the present study, complexity did not show any significant effect over the adoption probability. This result is in line with
The variable which measures the experience in the use of the Internet
Although they have websites, the agrifood firms may choose to use them in different ways. Therefore, the sample of those who adopted websites were asked their perception regarding a series of advantages regarding their use of this technology. The variables were measured on a multi-item scale from 1 to 10, where complete disagreement was codified with a value of 0, whilst total agreement was given a value of 10. The scales were grouped into categories by means of factor analysis (
Among the variables that saturated in Factor 1, denominated
Furthermore, the variables that saturated in Factor 2, denominated
With the intention of determining if the difference in observed means between the transactional and relational factor was significant, a
To delve deeper into the differences of both factors, a comparative analysis was carried out of perceptions of website use according to the real use made of the website. To determine the real use, the firms which used at least one transactional tool, such as online ordering with traditional forms, the virtual shop with a shopping trolley and electronic payment, or a relational use such as Intranet/extranet and a register of customers on the website, were considered “advanced” users (30%), whilst the remainder (70%) were considered basic users. This information was used to carry out a T-test of means comparisons for independent samples. The results confirmed that the advanced users value more those aspects which measure the intention to improve relations with stakeholders and the quality of the services offered. Therefore, they use web tools principally with a relational focus.
The principal contribution of this research is its integrative approach. On the one hand it contributes to increase the scientific knowledge and literature related to determinant factors of adopting ICT technology. On the other hand, the importance of use ICT is highlighted, namely websites, identifying their level of use and analysing the adoption consequences. Therefore, the main conclusions obtained from the study are as follows.
First, it is confirmed that personal characteristics such as the education level of the managers positively affect the adoption of a website. Among other reasons, this is because a high academic level makes them perceive less complexity and greater relative advantages to be attained from the use of the innovation.
Second, the firm’s characteristics, such as size, being dedicated to distributing agrifood goods, or the importance given to being differentiated by competitors, positively affect website adoption. Conversely, when the objective of a firm in relation to reducing costs increases, so the probably of adoption decreases.
Third, and depending on the technology characteristics, the relative advantage and compatibility are seen as factors that positively affect website adoption. In this context, it becomes necessary for the firms to consider exploiting the service in a more advanced manner, working on the introduction of new tools which enable them to achieve their targets, and in the improvement of relationships with their stakeholders. These include the introduction of private areas, the use of social networks to promote products, or activities related with the firm or e-business.
Fourth, the results show that, unlike with adoption, where transactional aspects, such as reducing costs and differentiating from its competitors received importance, the perception of relational use of a website is better valued than the transactional use. Likewise, it is not surprising that advanced users value both transactional and relational aspects associated to the use of a website more than basic users. It is possible that these firms try to provide themselves with a sense of balance focused on increasing competitiveness.
Despite the agribusiness sector being a dynamic sector that must have the ability to continuously innovate to be competitive, the current website adoption rate shows a similar value to those in the date of data collection, indicating that the adoption process is becoming established although there is still room for improvement.
Consequently, a number of recommendations can be extracted from the results aimed at making the agrifood firms increase their adoption and the degree of use given to the website, amongst which are: a) to increase the degree of training of the personnel regarding the use of web tools and adapting the design of the website (presentation and administration of contents, etc.), according to the characteristics and needs of the firms and their users, so as to reduce the complexity they perceive; b) to add value to the website through the use of new web tools which help the flow of information and knowledge of the firm, thus increasing the interest and satisfaction of those who access the site; c) to spread the advantages, both relational and transactional, of website use; and d) to facilitate firms access to websites by means of reductions in the introduction and maintenance costs, and by improving financial facilities.
Finally, there are some research limitations that could be considered as future research lines. A bigger sample would allow a deeper and more detailed analysis at business subsector level, among others. Also, other topics are worthy of study, it could be interesting to consider a further analysis over particularities of Spanish agrifood firms such as legal form, level of integration, etc., in the adoption and use of other ICTs.
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