An Investigation of Significant Factors Influencing Western Australian Wool Producers to Produce Wool: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Why Australian wool producers remained in the business despite the hardship they have experienced for much of the 1990s from low prices of wool? This question was raised frequently by research scientists and policymakers of the wool industry. A recent exploratory study gives a notion that Australian wool production could be a 'lifestyle' choice and/or a choice other than economic reasons. To validate this notion this paper investigates the factors that drive and motivate the Western Australian wool producers, as identified in the exploratory study, by applying a Structural Equation Modelling approach. An innovative mixed research method is adopted in this study. Telephone survey is conducted among a random selection of 290 wool producers in WA. The results suggest that despite some expectations lifestyle factor is not significant in influencing WA wool producers to produce wool. Income, input factor and personal motivation are significant predictors of wool production by WA wool producers. Implications of the results are discussed.Livestock Production/Industries, C21, L2, L7, Q10,

Inter-firm Relationships and Performance Factors in the Australian Beef Supply Chain: Implications for the Stakeholders

Recent study by Meat & Livestock Australia revealed that cost competitiveness and market development issues in supply chain are the major factors for a long term decline of the Australian Beef industry. This study, based on the explanation of transaction cost theory argues that competitive performance of an industry depends on improving cost efficiency across the whole of supply chain, the underlying value chain, and the relationship among the stakeholders in the industry. With a main objective to investigate the underlying factors of developing competent inter-firm relationship that influence the supply chain performance and competitiveness, this study presents details of a survey carried out and tests the hypothesis that inter-organizational relationships in supply chain and its antecedents have impact on the performance of Australian beef industry and thus have impact on the competitiveness of the industry. Data were collected through a telephone survey of 315 firms in the beef industry from the states of Western Australia and Queensland. The sample respondents were categorized as input suppliers, beef-cattle producers, processors, retailers/exporters, and wholesalers. The data were analysed using the partial least square based structural equation modelling. PLS analysis reveals that ‘Transaction Climate’ is the strongest determinants of developing a competent relationship, while negotiation power, presence of industry competitors, and the degree of vertical coordination significantly influence the relationship strength. Findings also demonstrate that relationship strength is the most prevalent source of performance and competitiveness, while SC performance highly positively influences the Competitiveness of beef industry. Thus this study identifies significant antecedents and consequences of Supply Chain Performance in Australian beef industry, which are strategic and extremely important information for beef producers, processors, retailers, and other stakeholders for appropriate planning and benchmarking.Beef Supply Chain, Agribusiness Management, Supply Chain Management, Agribusiness,

Effects of Internal and External Factors on Internet-Based Digital Technology Usage by SMEs in a Developing Country

This paper analyses the ef ects of culture and environment on the adoption and use of Internet based digital technology (IBDT) by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from a developing country perspective. A structural equation modeling is finally employed within a mix method research setting with a cross-sectional dataset of 557 SMEs in Bangladesh. The study reveals a significant association of normative pressures, coercive pressures, power distance, in-group collectivism, Bengali values, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use with SMEs intention to use IBDT while intention significantly affects actual usage behavior. The study concludes with some implications of the results

Farmer-To-Farmer Advice: What's the Best Way to Sell Raw Wool in Australia?

Some 85% of all raw wool produced in Australia is sold on the open-cry auction system (Bolt 2004). Current debate among wool growers highlighted the need to explore other methods available and, of these, determine what are the most preferred. Four focus groups were conducted in regional Western Australia to ascertain primary producers' opinions on the options available for selling their raw wool. Focus group p articipants were given a series of scenarios to brainstorm, these focused on offering advice to a new neighbour who had n ever grown wool. Results of the research showed that auctioning wool via the services of a broker is by far the preferred selling method. Forward contracting and internet-based selling were options that were unfamiliar but worthy of trial while futures and op tions trading, value-added selling and selling direct to mills were the least favoured methods. Further to this it was found that producers are willing to try selling methods that shorten the wool supply chain and they also favour relationship-based systems.Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Qualitative investigation of digital divide in Indonesia : toward a comprehensive framework

The issue of digital divide has attracted many researchers for over a decade, yet the understanding of digital divide is not comprehensive. This research examines three commonly recognised orders of the digital divide, which are: economic divide, the inequality of access to ICT associated with economic conditions; access divide, the disparity of access to ICT; and capability divide, the inequality of ability in using ICT, while conceptualising a fourth divide, innovativeness divide, which is defined as the disparity of individual&rsquo;s willingness to try out any new information technology. The paper presents a tentative model based on extensive literature review which was explored using qualitative method. The findings generate new insights into the relationships among those four orders of digital divide which contribute to the theoretical framework to understand the digital divide more comprehensively and provide evidence on the impact of digital divide on e-government use. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed in this paper.<br /

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach For Determining Adoption Of Agricultural Price Risk Management Strategies

Australian wool producers have been slow to adopt price risk management strategies to stabilise the income from their wool sales. The highly volatile auction system accounts for 85% of raw wool sales while the remainder is sold by forward contract, futures and other hedging methods. Qualitative analysis was used to find behavioural factors associated with the adoption of price risk management strategies (specifically futures and forward contracts) for selling raw wool. Consideration was given to Diffusion of Innovations and the Theory of Planned Behaviour as theoretical frameworks in order to answer the research question: Are there any non-traditional behavioural factors that need to be incorporated into existing frameworks to determine adoption of price risk management strategies for selling raw wool? In contrast to these prominent theories, data from four focus groups conducted with wool producers in regional Western Australia showed that trust, habit and social cohesion were the major behavioural determinants that governed the adoption of price risk management strategies. The significance of this paper lies in its multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the dimensions of farm-level decision making.Qualitative analysis, trust, habit, social cohesion, forward contracts, wool., Agricultural Finance, Risk and Uncertainty,

Behavioral Modeling of the Individual’s Acceptance and use of Internet in Bangladesh: An Analysis Using an Integrated Approach

This study attempts to examine individuals’ behavior in the adoption and usage of the Internet for accomplishing various transactions and communication in Bangladesh. A descriptive research design is administered to ascertain the joint impact of the study constructs. A combination of AMOS 18 and PLS graph has been used for structural equation modeling with a cross-sectional dataset of 239 individuals in Bangladesh collected through a questionnaire survey. The proposed model was assessed with two step procedure after scrutiny and correction for non response and subjective response bias. The psychometric properties of the model, convergent and discriminant validity were assessed through confirmatory factor analysis, construct reliability and the constructs correlation. The structural model estimation results reveal a significant association of image with perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and intention while indirect correlation with actual usage through intention. On the other hand, perceived usefulness has direct effects on intention while perceived ease of use is found to be indirectly associated through perceived usefulness. The path analysis furthered the significant effects of intention on actual usage behavior. The study also reports that analysis of the entire dataset with two different a roaches of structural equation modeling produces a consistent result which ensures robustness in the analysis. The study concludes with implications