Adoption of ICT enabled Agricultural Extension Services through Perceived Economic Wellbeing

Abstract

This article investigates the technology acceptance factors in the context of information communication technology enabled agricultural extension services. Behavioral intention has always been a consequence of the technology acceptance model. The purpose of this study was to examine if the consequence of adoption be an economic benefit to the customer. It examines how these factors influence perceived economic well-being of such users. A stratified sampling procedure was adopted to obtain data from 325 valid responses from rural Indians using a structured survey instrument. A two step method was applied to analyse the data. First, the measurement model was calibrated for the reliability and validity of constructs. Then, the strength and direction of the hypothesized relationships were investigated by the structural model using structural equation modeling. Users of mobile application were checked for their perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm and attitude for their perceived economic well-being. These four factors, when regressed upon the perceived economic well-being using structural equation modeling predict that all but attitude is significant. This article improvises the extant technology acceptance model by replacing behavioral intention with a perceived economic well-being as a consequence. A consumer who perceives economic benefits is more likely to adopt an innovative product. Marketers can advertise the economic benefits so that the target customers adopt such technologies. By this research, the authors have identified a different outcome for perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude and subjective norm. A new relationship between the exogenous variables perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm and attitude and the endogenous variable perceived economic well-being is established by this study. Behavioral intention can be replaced by perceived economic well-being as the outcome in the technology acceptance model.