Adoption of safer irrigation technologies and cropping patterns: Evidence from Southern Ghana

The new irrigation technologies introduced in sub-Saharan Africa aim at ensuring safer vegetable production when untreated waste water is used as irrigation water. This paper examines the adoption of safer irrigation technologies and crop choices among vegetable farmers, using cross-section data from urban Kumasi in Ghana. The study employed a two-stage conditional maximum likelihood approach to examine the impact of crop choices and farm-level characteristics on the adoption of safer irrigation technologies. The empirical results indicate that apart from household and farm characteristics such as access to extension agents, belonging to a farmer's organization and education, cropping patterns tend to influence adoption of irrigation technologies for safer vegetable production.     

农业企业采纳大数据技术影响因素研究——基于ISM模型的实证分析

为提升大数据技术在农业领域的应用深度与广度,进一步挖掘农业数据资源,推动农业供给侧改革。基于189份农业企业调研数据,运用ISM模型,分析了农业企业采纳大数据技术影响因素及其关联关系与递阶层次结构。提出加大技术的研发力度,提高核心设备和技术的自主知识产权水平,加强大数据技术产业协作,培养企业数据管理意识与大数据技术型人才,加强大数据技术公共示范工程的宣传作用等对策建议。     

The Optimal Timing of Adoption of a Green Technology

We study the optimal timing of adoption of a cleaner technology and its effects on the rate of growth of an economy in the context of an AK endogenous growth model. We show that the results depend upon the behavior of the marginal utility of environmental quality with respect to consumption. When it is increasing, we derive the capital level at the optimal timing of adoption. We show that this capital threshold is independent of the initial conditions on the stock of capital, implying that capital-poor countries tend to take longer to adopt. Also, country-specific characteristics, as the existence of high barriers to adoption, may lead to different capital thresholds for different countries. If the marginal utility of environmental quality decreases with consumption, a country should never delay adoption; the optimal policy is either to adopt immediately or, if adoption costs are “too high”, to never adopt. The policy implications of these results are discussed in the context of the international debate surrounding the environmental political agenda.      

企业采用新技术的时点博弈分析

技术创新可以为企业带来超额利润,具有极大的经济价值,然而新技术的不确定性和风险性又使得企业不会立即采用。本文通过构建双寡头垄断博弈模型对企业采用新技术的时点进行研究,证明企业采用新技术时存在一个最佳时点,在这个最佳时点之前,企业应采取等待策略。     

Does combining traditional and information and communications technology–based extension methods improve agricultural outcomes? Evidence from field experiments in Mali

Adequate flow of appropriate information to farmers is vital for accelerating the uptake of modern agricultural technologies and improving access to markets, all of which are important for the transformation of African economies. Yet there is limited evidence regarding how information should be disseminated to farmers to achieve the needed impact. Should ICT-based approaches be used together with traditional methods, or should they be used alone? We used cluster quasi-random and randomized experiments involving 140 villages in southern Mali to study three chains of causality: does farmer training increase knowledge? Does knowledge lead to change in behavior? Do the different actions generate varying economic outcomes? We show that the role of farmer training in the uptake of extension advice may be overstated in some settings; that procrastination and inattention are more binding constraints to recommendation adherence than information per se; and that such constraints could be mitigated by timely voice SMS reminders. Although timely reminders nudged farmers to take-up recommendations, leading to meaningful improvements in some intermediate outcomes, these impacts were not large enough to generate improvements in output, prices and profits in the short term. These findings must be interpreted within the context of imperfect compliance with experimental protocols, which pose threats to both the internal and external validity of some of the impact estimates.     

自助服务技术采纳的前因与模式:文献综述

通过系统梳理自助服务技术研究文献,总结了两类自助服务技术采纳前因——认知型前因和情感型前因,归纳出三种自助服务技术采纳模式——认知驱动模式、情感驱动模式及认知和情感综合驱动模式。研究表明:在自助服务技术采纳前因研究中,认知型前因所占比重很大,而情感型前因所占比重相对较小;三种采纳模式对自助服务技术采纳现象均起到了很好的理解和预测作用。最后,提出了自助服务技术采纳研究的发展方向。     

以农业环境技术产业化促进农业环境治理

农业环境污染威胁农业安全和食品安全。市场经济体制下,农业环境技术产业化是农业环境有效治理的基本路径。以市场方式实现技术转移和应用的优势在于,供给方在利益驱动和竞争压力下,能够不断的进行市场开拓和技术创新。一般性环境技术的产业化成效和发达国家农业环境技术的成功产业化为我国农业环境技术走产业化道路提供了经验借鉴。在论证农业环境技术产业化的可行性基础上,根据农业环境技术的类型,分析农业环境产业的主要类型;并根据农业环境技术不同类型的特点,分析不同农业环境产业的产业化动力和政策支持。     

Herd Behaviour in Adoption of Network Technologies

In technology adoption, herd behaviour can lead to a suboptimal outcome as shown, among others, by Choi (1997). However, empirics find little support for the idea that a less efficient technology can conquer the market and lock out a more efficient one. Accordingly, we improve and generalize Choi's results, by introducing an additional source of uncertainty: the economic environment. We investigate how the economic environment can affect herding and consequently the efficiency of the technology choice. The result is a smaller adoption bias. In the limit, firms may optimally experiment with the new technology that turns out to be social welfare improving.     

IT采纳作用下组织冗余与企业绩效的关系

研究了企业IT采纳作用下组织冗余与企业绩效的关系,考虑了IT采纳水平和IT采纳时间对该关系的调节效果。运用"中国企业信息化500强"中上市公司的面板数据进行验证,发现企业IT采纳实施后,在IT采纳时间和IT采纳水平的调节下,4种类型的组织冗余与企业绩效存在不同的关系。     

市场和技术对企业新技术采用最优时机的影响

基于古诺模型,研究了产品的可替代程度和技术的有效性对企业采用新技术的时机的影响。结果表明:率先采用新技术的企业采用新技术的时机与产品的可替代程度呈倒U型关系;当产品的可替代性足够大且技术有效性充分小时,较晚采用新技术的企业采用新技术的时机会随市场竞争的加剧而提前;两类企业采用新技术的时机与技术的有效性均成负相关关系;面对技术有效性的同水平提高,较晚采用新技术的企业采用新技术的时机将提早得更多。