Abstract
The literature elucidates the evolution of agricultural market information systems and their impact on value chain networks. However, the existing theoretical frameworks prove inadequate in capturing and cataloging emerging initiatives in the changing contour of agricultural systems. The domain presents a substantial heterogeneity in research and practice and suggests the need for taxonomy schematics. Guided by the network externality theory, agency theory, and information and communication technology for development 2.0 framework, we review and synthesize the literature and propose a typology that classifies agricultural systems into standalone, integrated, and self-organizing platforms. Through desk research on archives, we perform case analyses of five representative systems operating in emerging markets. The findings drawn from the archival analysis were triangulated with domain experts’ interviews. We consider five dimensions: the technology used, the information available, services delivered, target users, and value architecture for case analyses. The study suggests that the integrated and self-organizing platforms score over standalone systems. The self-organizing systems offer value co-creation opportunities to contextualize need-based solutions and provide a substrate for overcoming the limits to localization.
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Annexure
In total, 15 domain experts were consulted in the study. Their participation in the study was voluntary. The criteria for selecting these experts were that they should be directly associated with different agricultural market information system initiatives in a leadership position and, hence, have a sufficient understanding of the domain. We attempted to select a representative set of such experts with good know-how of the domain. A single interview per respondent was conducted. An initial description of the context of the study was provided to them. The final findings from the case analysis (resulting from literature review synthesis and archival review) were shared with these domain experts for their feedback. The experts agreed with our findings and suggested minor changes, especially in presenting the results and improving pragmatic articulation. All the experts suggested no significant changes affecting the classification schemes and previously made statements. The domain expert referral strengthens the case analysis as the findings get triangulated (Farquhar et al., 2020; Lewis, 1998). Hence, this additional step after the archival review further strengthened our research.
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Singh, N., Dey, K. A typology of agricultural market information systems and its dimensions: Case studies of digital platforms. Electron Markets 33, 42 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00665-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00665-0