Understanding technology adoption and non-adoption: a case study of innovative beef farmers from Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil

This study draws on social-psychology in an attempt to identify the various motivations for technology adoption (TA), including both economic and non-economic, and to gain insights into how and why Brazilian innovative beef farmers make decisions about whether or not to adopt particular technologies. Three major research questions are addressed: (1) is there diversity of major goals and values amongst Brazilian innovative beef farmers, and if so, how can this diversity be characterised?; (2) how does diversity within innovative beef farmers‘ goals and values affect adoption and non-adoption of technologies?; and (3) do innovative beef farmers use a different set of constructs when assessing different types of technologies? If so, why? Innovative farmers were targeted given their openness to new ideas, including innovations, and their social role in importing innovations from institutions onto farms.