Empowering Malaysian micro agri-entrepreneurs: the role of key success factors in e-agribusiness adoption

Abstract

Progress in the agricultural sector is one of the most imperative tools to enhance the productivity of agribusiness. This study identified the key success factors required for the adoption of e-agribusiness platforms in the Malaysian agriculture sector. The study analyzed potential key factors from the prior studies and contextually adjusted using a pilot study. These factors are categorized in various categories such as financial imperative, technological imperative, knowledge imperative, risk and trust factors, governance and public policy, and challenging business environment. The study has collected data from 302 micro agri-entrepreneurs within Malaysia through a questionnaire for quantitative analysis. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to see the impact of critical success factors (CSFs) that help to increase technological adoption thereby enhancing communication, advertisement, and overall sales of agri-products on the e-business platform. The study has a significant impact on key success factors (financial imperative, technological imperative, knowledge imperative, risk and trust factors, governance and public policy, and challenging business environment) on the adoption of e-agribusiness platforms. The findings provide guidelines to micro agri-entrepreneurs and policymakers that how to use key success factors to improve business performance by utilizing e-agribusiness platforms.