Adoption of Advanced Technologies in Palm Oil Milling Firms in Malaysia: The Role of Technology Attributes, and Environmental and Organizational Factors

Sima Parvand,Rajah Rasiah

doi:10.3390/su14010260

Abstract

Malaysian palm oil mills have lagged behind in the adoption of advanced milling technologies, both to support productivity growth as well as meet sustainable development goals. Using primary data from a simple random sample of 54 mills, this study sought to examine the factors explaining the adoption of advanced milling technologies. The results from the logit regressions deployed show that top management support and mill size act as key drivers of new technology adoption. Importantly, organizational factors were more critical in the adoption of advanced milling technologies than technological and environmental factors. However, financial support and resources, technical skills, complexity, cost, and government support produced negative coefficients among the non-adopters. The results should help mill owners, managers, and policymakers to remove the barriers facing the non-adopters, and to create effective strategies to stimulate the adoption of advanced milling technologies.

Highlights

The Malaysian oil palm milling sector grew rapidly following government efforts to diversify agricultural exports since the 1970s
Advanced milling technology adoption in palm oil mills (POMs) in Malaysia varied across the process flow chart: sterilization, oil extraction, oil recovery, kernel recovery, boiler operation, and wastewater treatment
Since the frequencies varied and overlapped, we used the overall incidence of advanced milling technology adoption in the statistical analysis

Summary

Introduction

The Malaysian oil palm milling sector grew rapidly following government efforts to diversify agricultural exports since the 1970s. Given the exhaustion of arable land in Malaysia, it is critical that the focus by the government and firms shift towards the use of advanced technologies to meet the expected growth in demand over the period from. It is clear from past studies that technological change will have to play a major role in growth of the palm oil industry in Malaysia (see [4]). In the palm oil milling industry, technology is largely associated with the use of machinery and equipment for multi-purpose functions, problem-solving, and creating value [5,6,7]. Adzmi Hassan et al [8] provided evidence

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion