The Influence of Supply Network on Dairy Technology Adoption: Empirical Evidence from Urban and Peri-urban Dairy Farming Systems of Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating how the supply network structure in which dairy farms are embedded influences their technology adoption. In order to consider the effects of network structure embeddedness on technology adoption, farm-level data were collected from 169 randomly selected dairy farms. Social network analysis was used to develop the structural characteristics and Poisson regression model was used to evaluate the influence of the network on technology adoption. The results indicate that the supply network interconnectedness increases farm’s adoption of dairy technology while the supply network density decreases the likelihood of the adoption of dairy technology. Furthermore, the study shows the absorptive capacity positively moderates the effect of supply network accessibility on the likelihood of adoption of dairy technology in dairy farms. This study provides useful insights into the potential role of supply network structural characteristics and the moderating role of absorptive capacity on dairy technology adoption. Thus, in light of these findings, considerations should be given to policies that create an ecosystem of interactions through training, promoting fairs and innovation events to promote rapid dairy technology adoption by dairy farms.