Intentions of Farmers to Renew Productive Agricultural Service Contracts Using the Theory of Planned Behavior: An Empirical Study in Northeastern China

Abstract

Maintaining stable linkages between farmers and APS service providers is conducive to cutting transaction costs, increasing service organizations’ willingness to invest in the long term and motivation to innovate on their own, improving agricultural production and resource use efficiency, and safeguarding farmers’ welfare and national food security. The willingness of farmers to renew their contracts is a key factor in long-term APS partnerships. Based on research data from the Northeast region in 2018, this study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to construct a two-stage decision-making framework for the contracting-renewal and to determine how the process influences the formation of willingness. The Heckman two-stage model is applied. The results indicate that the mechanism of farmers’ willingness to renew APS is formed in accordance with TPB’s conceptual analysis framework with the dual logic of “stimulus” and “constraint”. In the first stage, individual and family characteristics have a significant influence on farmers’ contracting behavior. In the second stage, three exogenous latent variables, behavioral attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms, have a better explanatory role in the formation of farmers’ willingness to renew APS. The stronger the perceived control that is generated by farmers during the decision-making process, the more pronounced the behavioral attitudes were, and the stronger the inducement of willingness to renew the service. The findings suggest that governments should strengthen APS outreach and improve the regional economy and natural environment. Overall, this study helps to uncover the farmer’s TPB mechanism and provide an empirical basis for how to promote APS development.