Organizational innovativeness and its antecedents: a study of livestock farming technologies

Abstract

This study proposes a model to explain the innovativeness of beef cattle producers from an organizational perspective. According to the innovation dissemination theory, organizational innovativeness is the degree to which an organization innovates relatively sooner than others. To assess innovativeness, four antecedents were considered: the perceived characteristics of innovation, comprised of relative advantage, compatibility, image, result demonstrability, visibility, experimentability, voluntariness and ease of use; the participation of livestock farmers in social networks, characterized as peer relationship networks; sources of commercial information, characterized as information obtained by means of the relationships, in order to reduce risks; and organizational psychographics, consisting of direction, the centrality of decisions, open communication and motivation for achievement. The four constructs have a positive relation with organizational innovativeness. Using a non-random sample for reasons of convenience, 205 valid questionnaires were obtained. The analysis of multiple components showed that the respondents had a distinct profile concerning innovativeness. This distinguishing feature led to the creation of a taxonomy based on the technology adoption profile to identify differences in innovative behavior, which resulted in three groups. Thus, three models were analyzed and compared through structural equation modeling, using the PLS (partial least square) method. The results showed that the group of the less innovative respondents adopted innovations based the social networks, on the compatibility of the technology with their organizational activities and on the new technology's image among the other beef cattle producers. The so-called 'intermediaries' had organizational psychographics geared toward innovativeness; however, the adoption of new technologies seemed to be more related to market dictates than to a perception of the innovative features of these technologies. The most innovative group, i.e., the opinion leaders, demonstrated an organizational innovativeness profile constructed from commercial sources of information and the farmers looked upon the costs of the new technology as a positive investment in the future of the business.