FOOD TRACEABILITY ON INTENTION TO USE AGRICULTURAL E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS
Lai, Ming-Fong
Department of Commerce Automation & Management,
National Pingtung University
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Wang, Huei-Yu
Science & Technology Policy Research and Information Center,
National Applied Research Laboratories
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Abstract
Utilizing the Internet to aid a company’s operations and marketing has become an inevitable trend. In addition to brick-and-mortar storefront sales and traditional marketing methods, a majority of organizations and firms have begun to value and utilize Internet marketing. Therefore, the innovation, development, and application of Internet information technology may provide solutions to problems in agricultural product marketing and distribution channels. This study uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a basis for exploring the degree of consumer acceptance of agricultural produce e-tailing and treats food traceability as an external factor of TAM to ascertain whether consumer desire for e-tailed agricultural produce will increase because of the introduction and intensification of e-commerce platforms and food traceability. The results suggest that perceived ease-of-use and food traceability do not have a significant direct relationship with intention to use but that both have a positive effect on intention to use through perceived usefulness; moreover, perceived ease-of-use is related to food traceability significantly. Therefore, should e-tailers wish to increase the acceptance of online shopping of produce, they must first strengthen perceived usefulness. Perceived ease-of-use also has a positive and significant effect on food traceability, helping strengthen the intention to buy agricultural products online by providing consumers with convenient and easy access to information related to the safety of the products. This research study ascertains consumer demand for the design and planning of e-tailing platforms from TAM and strengthens the effectiveness of embedding food traceability into system functions to boost consumer intention to buy produce online. In fact, there is scant research on consumer demand and e-commerce platform design focusing solely on agricultural products. Thus, to a certain extent, the results of this study have further bolstered the research discussion and theoretical basis for providing solutions to the marketing and distribution of agricultural produce.
Key words: Technology Acceptance Model (TAM); Food Traceability; Online Shopping; Agricultural Produce
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