Study Limitations and Future Research

The objective of this study is to understand and explain factors for the adoption of a dairy management information system in Korea. First, the internal validity of the research design may be a limiting factor to this study. Measuring farm manager perceptions may also be subjective. Open-end interviews have inherent biases that are unpredictable at the time of formulating and implementing the questionnaire.

You really do not know the internal validity of the research design until the interview has been conducted in the field for some time and the results analyzed.

For example, if the questions are positioned in a positive manner, the participant may be inclined to respond with an agreement to the question. Did the participant understand the question? Some negative questions/statements embedded in the interview would be an option to consider. The interview questions are in a random positive and negative order in this case study. Second, dairy managers may have given their perceived usefulness of an innovation rather than their actual reason to adopt the system. The discussions were also bi-directionally translated (English-Korean and (English-Korean-English) by the dealer during the interview process. Therefore, information may have been translated incorrectly or lost in the translation process.

Third, qualitative interviews have less control and allow the observer to make their own perceived judgments or biases about the content discussed. Fourth, the relatively small sample size (four farms) of selected managers used in the analysis

may not represent the general population for this particular dairy management information system in Korea. Caution should be taken in interpreting the results.

The expense, time consumption, and smaller sample size are some disadvantages of the interview method. Selected interviews may contain sample bias and not represent the true population (McMillan, 2004).

Streams of research in precision agriculture, precision livestock farming and precision dairy management are predominately focused on technical farming aspects. This exploratory case study described a dairy management information system in adoption and post-adoption terms and analyzes determinants in the context of adopter characteristics, and environmental, technological and organizational factors. However, the analysis described above is subjective and based on the researchers’ view of the current state of affairs in the Korean dairy sector. Although we followed traditional case study methodology with an inter-rater of 90%, the discussion, conclusions and the system’s applicability in Innovation Diffusion Theory research are based on subjective analysis. Future research should develop objective (quantitative) measures for the study of adoption-diffusion of a dairy management information system. Given the generally low use of dairy management information systems, future research should also investigate the environmental and policy drivers, and inhibitors for the adoption of such systems.

Although the dairy management information system in this study is implemented in various dairy farms around Korea, the relations between the level of use of the various system components, herd-size, farmer’s education, social conditions, and the economic benefits of the system are unclear. Our analysis illustrates that adoption of the system can be determine by a combination of adopter characteristics, and environmental, technological and organizational factors.

However, it is unclear what would be the idea mix in the Korean context. Future research should investigate these issues across cultures and an international context.

In addition, further simplifying of the systems software may also increase the potential for extended use and improved use of the system. The education level

appears to be at a reasonably high level considering that this is agriculture. Training and continued education of the system may be a limiting factor for full adoption of the system components. Future research could focus specifically on the effects of education and training on the adoption and extended use of the system.

Finally, the shortage and safety of dairy products are a major concern for both developed and developing countries. Encouraging the adoption of a dairy management information system that can monitor product yield and quality throughout the food supply chain may possibly alleviate safety and shortages of dairy products. Adoption encouragements may require national and international policies and agreements due to the increasing issues that involve food safety.

Countries that trade dairy products may consider establishing test-beds, training and education facilities, and information centers that can help dairy farmers in the adoption process. Future research can examine the effectiveness of a dairy management information system on food safety and shortage.

3.8.1 Theoretical Contributions

Our findings would be valuable for academicians and practitioners considering that agricultural information systems and dairy management information systems are typically difficult systems to adopt. This study contributes to an understanding of the Korean dairy farmer’s adoption of information technology. A majority of research on the diffusion of innovation focus on the timing and degree of adoption or if an innovation is even adopted. This study investigates adopter characteristics and environmental, technological and organizational factors for the adoption of information technology. The results of this study should provide academicians with an example of an exploratory case study of an information system implemented by dairy managers in Korea. This study is the first exploratory, multi-method case study to look at post-adoption of a dairy management information system in Korea.

3.8.2 Practical Contributions

The results of this study should also provide practitioners with better insight of the dairy farmer perceptions for the adoption of a dairy management information system in the Korean context. This could lead to better insight of technology adoption for dairy farms in Korea. The study may further provide a better understanding of the relationship between dairy farmers and vendor support. These factors may contribute or hinder the adoption of this dairy management information system.