Adoption of social media marketing by West African farmers: a TAM-based study

Abstract

This research enriches existing contributions on the adoption of social media for promoting farmers in West Africa through the lens of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The objective is to identify the factors underlying the adoption of social media for promoting agricultural products. This article addresses this research gap by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the TAM method through a quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire for data collection. Primary data were obtained from 221 farmers in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. In terms of results, we used multiple regression to test the significance of our research model. Thus, our article demonstrates that perceived credibility, reference group, infotainment, and perceived usefulness had a significant positive impact on the adoption of social media marketing. Conversely, perceived ease of use had a negative effect on attitudes toward adopting social media marketing. In terms of practical and social implications, this study helps researchers and agronomists use social media to increase the marketing of agricultural products. Specifically, this research enriches agricultural marketing literature by exploring new determinants of social media adoption.

Classification JEL : Q13, O33, L86, C12

Paper type : Empirical Research