The role of trust in obtaining and following advice in farming
基于新西兰大规模调查，研究发现农民对建议来源的信任程度比风险偏好、人口统计特征或经验更能影响其获取和遵循建议的行为，共享价值体系能提升信任感。
Globally, the agricultural sector faces a complex array of familiar and emerging challenges that affect the profitability, environmental sustainability and suitability of farming activities. To respond and adapt to these challenges, a farmer can either rely on their current stock of knowledge or seek new advice from external sources to underpin new production changes. An extensive body of literature suggests trust is pivotal to a farmer's decision on curation and adoption of advice. Yet, empirical exploration of trust production and the influence of trust on advice-seeking and advice-following behaviours of farmers remains limited. Using a large-scale survey from New Zealand, we connect types of trust production to the influence of trust on advice-seeking and advice-following behaviours. We find that the degree of trust in a source has a greater impact on the likelihood of obtaining and following advice than farmers' risk preferences, demographics, or years of experience. Believing in a shared value system has a positive effect on the level of perceived trustworthiness in all sources apart from institutions. We also find that aversion to experimenting with new ideas somewhat mitigates the likelihood of obtaining advice but has no impact on likelihood of following that advice. By exploring the mechanisms of trust development in advice adoption, agricultural advisors can better target efforts to enhance farmers' perceptions of advisor trustworthiness and thereby improve the likelihood of farmers considering and adopting the advisors' advice. • Degree of trust in a source positively impacts likelihood of obtaining advice. • Degree of trust in a source positively impacts likelihood of following advice. • Shared value systems positively impact degree of trust in a source. • Risk aversion mitigates likelihood of obtaining advice, but not following it.