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What are you looking for!?! : The influence of new media in farmers' decision making process regarding capital intensive goods

Woerds, M.E. ter (2016) What are you looking for!?! : The influence of new media in farmers' decision making process regarding capital intensive goods.

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Abstract:Purpose – Last years through the rise of the Internet, the use of ‘new media’ has increased and that changed the way how people interact with each other. This is also applicable to farmers and can be related to the sales of capital intensive goods (e.g. machine or tractor) through companies. New media is a form of digital media in which customers actively search for information, for example on websites and social media. The aim of this research was to get insight in the decision making process of capital intensive goods through farmers and the role of (new) media in this process. Method – Three studies were conducted to answer the research question: 1) interviews with ten employees of agricultural mechanization companies to gain insight of their current knowledge and their use of (new) media, 2) content analysis of different new media (website, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts) of twenty agricultural mechanization companies to discover the content and usage of new media and 3) eleven interviews with farmers to get insight in their decision making process regarding capital intensive goods and how they see the role of new media in their decision making process. Results – The results of the studies showed that employees of agricultural mechanization companies were highly aware of their way to sell machines and tractors to their customers and on their usage of (new) media in that process. The companies did not have thoroughly thought written strategies, their strategy was to handle on intuition. All agricultural mechanization companies had a website, fifteen a Facebook page and only five a Twitter account. The content of these media was for a major part consistent with the wishes of the farmer, a few exceptions were mentioning prices of machines on the website and the insufficient use of offline communication tools. Conclusion – These and other findings provide insight into the wishes of farmers and the actual media use of agricultural mechanization companies. The companies usage of new media broadly corresponded with the wishes of the farmers, from this research revealed that improvements were possible. The companies can use this information to adapt their media use.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies, 48 agricultural science
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/69621
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