Exploring actors' perceptions of the precision agriculture innovation system – A Group Concept Mapping approach in Germany and Switzerland

Abstract

Precision Agriculture Technologies (PATs) promise to enhance productivity and foster sustainability. However, attempts to explain the low adoption of PATs, particularly in Europe, lack attention to the role of shared understanding of PATs among actors in the development and diffusion of this innovation. To uncover what could guide the emergence of a collective understanding of PATs, we explore how the actors comprising the nascent innovation system perceive PATs and how they perceive possibilities for influencing the precision agriculture innovation system. We utilize the mixed-method approach of Group Concept Mapping to uncover (in)congruences in relation to PAT perceptions of farmers from Germany and Switzerland vis-à-vis other stakeholders in the innovation system. We found that negative perceptions of the economic and social aspects of PATs are a source of discrepancies among the actors. Conversely, positive perceptions of the prospective value propositions of PATs seem to be a point of coherence. We argue that the maturity of the innovation system thus depends on the further alignment of such perceptions as well as the realization of the innovation's value proposition. Both practitioners and policymakers could strengthen the innovation system of PATs, with the help of intermediaries, through aligning perceptions of challenges and value propositions.