delphi technique

In recent years, researchers have studied the factors affecting the performance of agricultural businesses and have identified entrepreneurial marketing as one of the new approaches and innovative solutions to maintain the survival and increase the income of this Businesses have introduced. In this regard, the current integrated research (qualitative-quantitative) was conducted with the aim of identifying and classifying the determinants of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city based on the three-pronged model.

In terms of the general paradigm, the present research is of the type of integrated studies (qualitative-quantitative) and in terms of the purpose, it is considered to be of the type of applied studies. In the qualitative part, which was conducted with the aim of identifying and classifying the determinants of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city based on the three-pronged model, the Delphi method was used. The community studied in this section included 16 experienced gardeners and 14 experts and horticultural specialists active in Kermanshah city. In this part of the study, in-depth individual interviews and focused group discussions were used to collect data. In the quantitative part, which was carried out with the aim of validating the entrepreneurial marketing model among gardeners in Kermanshah city, the descriptive-correlation method with the partial least squares approach (Smart PLS) was used. The statistical population in the quantitative part was all the users of the horticulture department of Kermanshah (N=3362) who were selected for the study by using the stratified sampling method and proportional assignment and using the Karjesi and Morgan table. SPSS and Smart PLS software used to analyze the data in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of the Delphi study led to the extraction of 28 items effective on entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah city, and further, using the three-pronged model, these items were divided into three classes: behavioral factors (9 items), structural factors (7). item) and background factors (12 items) were classified. The results of the quantitative part of the study showed that the status of behavioral and contextual factors among the gardeners of Kermanshah city was lower than the average level, and the status of the structural factor was slightly higher than the average level. Also, the findings of the study indicated that gardeners in Kermanshah had average entrepreneurial marketing skills. Finally, the findings of the structural equation modeling section indicated that about 89% of entrepreneurial marketing changes are explained by the items identified in the research in the form of three-pronged factors (behavioral, structural and contextual).

Improving the state of entrepreneurial marketing among gardeners in Kermanshah requires planning and special attention of officials and planners to behavioral, contextual and structural factors, based on the findings of this study; suggestions have been made to achieve this goal.

Traditional agriculture is no longer able to provide sustainable, safe, and nutritious food for a planet with a population of more than 9 billion by 2050. This has led researchers to study about modern agriculture and its related factors. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of presenting an adoption model of IoT in the agricultural sector.

Indicators and factors affecting the implementation of IoT in the agricultural sector were extracted in two stages. Using content analysis, researches related to IoT in the agricultural sector was reviewed in the first stage. In the next stage, effective indicators on the adoption of IoT in the agricultural sector were extracted by Delphi technique and a survey of 15 experts whom were purposefully selected using snowball method.

The research findings showed that 63 indicators in the form of 11 categories and 4 dimentions are effective in adoption of IoT in the agricultural sector. Key concepts include environmental, technological, economic, and socio-cultural factors; sub-categories include cost factors, financial incentives, revenue factors, organizational factors, laws and policies, agricultural and ecological factors, technology infrastructure, security factors, IoT capabilities and features, human factors, and cultur-building.

It can be said that in order to adopt IoT in the agricultural sector, changes and reforms in all four main concepts including environmental, technological, economic, and socio-cultural factors seem necessary. In this regard, it is suggested to government to create laws supporting privacy and data ownership as well as to modify and revise the agricultural sector productivity law emphazing on the implementation of IoT technology. Also, providing cooperation between academic agriculture and information technology experts, developing knowledge-based companies in the field of IoT in agricultural sector, and creating an academic field of IoT are recommended.

Agribusinesses that follow conventional approach, due to overuse of off-farm inputs threaten ecosystem services, environmental health and human life. Insisting on the continuation of these type of businesses will threaten the sustainable livelihoods of the rural population, as well as the lives and health of consumers. Therefore, to deal with these threats, the creation and development of organic production businesses is an inevitable necessity.The present study sought to first identify and prioritize the challenges of creating and developing organic wheat production business and then introduce appropriate solutions to remove these obstacles and challenges.

The present study used the Delphi technique to identify and prioritize the barriers and solutions of the creation and development of organic wheat production business. Using snowball sampling, 21 Agriculture-Jahad specialists of Markazi province were selected to participate in two rounds of Delphi technique. The data from the semi-structured interview of the first round were coded using the content analysis and then were compiled as a Likert scale and again provided to the experts for scoring. The coefficient of variation was used to end the Delphi technique and the normalized weight index was used to prioritize the variables.

The results revealed that lack of initial capital, lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy, improper marketing, insufficient knowledge and skills and low motivation along with long period of transition and lack of insurance coverageas were the most important challenges respectively and the formation of a wheat growers’ cooperative, the payment of low-interest facilities, training and extension, crop insurance and guaranteed purchase along with supplying inputs were the most important solutions respectively.

In short, in this study an economic challenge i.e. insufficient initial capital has been introduced as the first and most important obstacle for creating and developing the organic wheat production business and a policy issue i.e., lack of government support for organic wheat production due to the dominance of self-sufficiency policy has been introduced as the second important obstacle. Other challenges, namely marketing, cognitive and psychological problems, are overshadowed by these two challenges and are in the next ranks. The interesting thing is that given the challenges, a social action, i.e., organizing wheat farmers in the form of a production cooperative, has been introduced as the first and most important solution to address the challenges and reduce their adverse effects. So that other measures such as payment of facilities, holding training and extension courses, insurance, guaranteed purchase of the products and supply of inputs within it and through it will be facilitated, accelerated and implemented.