Investigating the Effects of E-Marketing Factors for Agricultural Products on the Emergence of Sustainable Consumer Behaviour

Abstract

The digitalisation of services is a process that is gaining traction worldwide owing to the numerous benefits that it provides to sellers and consumers. This study aimed to explore the impact of e-marketing factors for agricultural products on the sustainable consumer behaviour. The technology acceptance model (TAM) and the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) model were used to investigate the factors that trigger long-term behavioural changes towards more sustainable consumer behaviour. Trust and continuance intention (CI) constitute sustainable consumer behaviours. The survey-based data were collected from 172 farmers in and around the Al-Baha province of Saudi Arabia. The findings reveal that, out of the six factors, social influence (SI), hedonic motives (HM), and perceived risk (PR) had a significant impact on trust whereas the perceived usefulness (PU), information quality (IQ), and the perceived ease of use (PEOU) had an insignificant impact on trust. Trust appears to had a substantial positive impact on the development of CI. Furthermore, the significant moderation of age and the insignificant moderation of education are observed among trust–CI relationship. Therefore, policymakers should concentrate on the factors such as SI and decrease the factors that are related to the PR in order to achieve a higher level of trust. This study contributes to the literature on e-marketing of agricultural products resulting in the formation of CI that triggers long-term behavioural changes towards more sustainable consumer behaviour.