Essays on the adoption & continuance of agri-marketing mobile applications in an emerging market context

Abstract

Synergy of internet technology and rapidly expanding mobile applications are significantly impacting a person’s consumption and livelihood. However, the adoption, sustained usage, and influence of mobile applications are less in rural agri-marketing, as compared to sectors such as banking, e-commerce and finance. Digital resources have fallen short of their potential to positively influence the socio-economic development of the rural sector due to a lack of insights into the needs, preferences and unique decision-making process of the rural community. The current research work, comprising of three essays, quantitatively investigates the psychological phenomena of adoption and continuance of the agri-marketing mobile applications by rural users along with its role in the psychological empowerment of the users. The data collected from rural participants of the agro-climatic zone of Trans-Gangetic plains is analyzed using structural equation modelling technique. Essay 1 extends the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology with novel set of factors in modern parlance of artificial intelligence enabled digital solutions. An integrated model explaining adoption of agri-marketing mobile applications in rural sector is presented. Also, brand credibility is reported to mediate the relationship between influencing factors and behavioral intention. Essay 2 draws from the empowerment theory and proposes a framework for psychological empowerment of the users of the mobile app by empirically establishing the relationships with its antecedents and consequences. Mediation effect of psychological empowerment on the relationship between its antecedents and consequences is also established. Besides, role of digital literacy is also studied. Essay 3 comprises two studies. Study 1 draws from cognitive appraisal theory and presents a novel set of cognitive appraisal dimensions, positively influencing continuance intention. Further, mediation effect of the discrete emotion of satisfaction, elicited in response to the cognitive appraisal is also reported. Study 2 explores digital congruence of people, tasks and technology. Accordingly, a socio-technical system is proposed for rational decision-making of continuance of usage of mobile apps for agri marketing. The outcome has manifold theoretical and practical implications as these insights can enable design and development of mobile applications that can be adopted for sustained use, leading to the psychological empowerment of the rural user.