Local innovative capability and innovative adoption in agriculture: Computers on Italian farms
研究了本地环境如何影响农民采纳创新（如计算机）的行为，发现本地创新能力通过知识流动促进创新，且农场自身条件好时效果更强。
The paper examines the role of the local environment in determining farmers' innovative behavior. The local environment embodies an innovative capability that helps farms to bridge the knowledge gap associated with innovation adoption. This capability is generated by the formal and informal relationships established by the economic units and institutions within the local environment, which allow the creation and circulation of new knowledge and skills. Local innovative capability is defined through composite variables identified by applying principal component analysis to a set of variables measuring characteristics of local society, production systems and agriculture. The model was tested by analysing computer ownership by Italian farms at provincial level. Empirical analysis confirms the importance of the local innovative capability for farmers' innovative behaviour. The propensity to innovate is further enhanced if farm structures are well endowed. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.