ABSTRACT
Marketing's job is never done. It's about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.
Beth Comstock, Former CMO & Vice Chair, GE
Research Problem:
How to promote customer adoption of shared farm equipment services?
Chapter Overview:
Sharing economy builds sustainable societies. More prominent in car/bike sharing, this model is slowly emerging in agricultural and food systems. However, the penetration is low and use of information/mobile technology is limited. India constitutes a large percent of small landowners who lack resources to buy the necessary machine, resulting in inefficient farming practices and enormous personal, financial, societal loss every year (farmer suicide, crop destruction, low-quality output, etc.). To empower farmers and this agrarian economy, the Indian government and several firms have come up with farm equipment rental apps. Despite an impetus given to sharing economy initiatives in agriculture systems across the globe, we are still not clear on what sharing means from a farmer's perspective and how to reach out to this socially responsible class of consumers through marketing science. Successful marketing requires insight into customer's expectations and value drivers to create a product-market fit. In line with the main objective of this book, this study combines the findings of literature review and in-depth interviews to explore (1) what farmers understand from “shared resources” and (2) what are their expectations from “shared services” providers to derive propositions for the adoption of shared farm equipment services. We deduce that villagers share and leverage their resources as human capital, physical capital, and financial capital. However, there are barriers to resource sharing at the village level that lead to low farmer participation. Information quality, platform quality, contractual governance, and return on investment affect the perceived value of shared farm equipment services. The higher the perceived value, the greater is the intention of farmers to adopt such services. This relationship is further moderated by influencer activity, social capital, and social advocacy at the village level. The proposed conceptual model has important implications for industry and policymakers, e.g., providers should account for more transparency, an assortment of farm equipment, and stringent contractual agreements to safeguard the interests of farmers. Thus, this study acts as a blueprint to develop a sustainable shared economy model at the village level.
