Effect of social dynamics on technology adoption in urban, sub-urban and rural farming communities in the Limpopo Province of South Africa

Abstract

This study looked at the measurement of social dynamics, differentiating between the main types of social dynamics and employed factor analysis to aggregate indicators of social dynamics into bonding, bridging, and linking social dynamics. Using discriminant analysis, the role of these types of dynamics on technology adoption was analyzed. The study found that all three types of social dynamics, bonding, bridging and linking affect technology adoption to some extent but bridging which includes trust shared norms and ownership of assets was the most predominant across the three areas: urban, suburban and rural. The study recommends more research investments in understanding the bridging outcome of social dynamics on adoption of technologies for further guide to agricultural interventions. © 2010 Academic Journals.