Vol. 11 No. 3 (2022)
Full Research Articles

The role of network characteristics of the innovation spreaders in agriculture

Antonio Lopolito
Department of Economics, Management and Territory, University of Foggia
Angela Barbuto
Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resource and Engineering, University of Foggia
Fabio Gaetano Santeramo
Department of Agriculture, Food, Natural Resource and Engineering, University of Foggia

Published 2022-11-04

Keywords

  • Diffusion of innovations,
  • Agent Based Model,
  • Social network analysis

How to Cite

Lopolito, A., Barbuto, A., & Santeramo, F. G. (2022). The role of network characteristics of the innovation spreaders in agriculture. Bio-Based and Applied Economics, 11(3), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-9932

Abstract

The diffusion of innovations is largely influenced by the characteristics of the network of initial adopters (or innovation spreader). We investigate how these characteristics tend to influence the adoption rate and the speed of the diffusion process of a technological innovation in agriculture. The diffusion process is simulated through an Agent Based Model that replicates real-world data. We found that the closeness and the clusterization of the networks are the variables that tend to affect the most the capability of spreading innovations among members. Our findings have direct policy implications: since innovations help advancing the economic development of the agricultural sector, promoting the emergence of networks that have desirable characteristics would enhance growth. Our analysis provides specific insights on how to plan networks with desirable characteristics for the innovation spreaders.

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