Impact of Mobile Internet Application on Farmers’ Adoption and Development of Green Technology
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
the paper approaches an important topic, the new technology adoption behavior, more specifically the „mediating effect of farmers' information acquisition ability, risk attitude and expected return on new technology adoption behavior.“ While this statement appears towards the end bridging to the conclusive section, the objective of the study should be also mentioned in the introduction. As a result, the purpose of the research should be stressed out more clearly, as well as the research gap and the contribution and potentially the research questions under research, that should be supported by the proposed framework. It should also be presented in more clarity in the abstract what the research question in evaluation is. The abstract starts with the word „empathically“ where I would rather read „empirically“.
The analysis of the theoretical framework is missing. Albeit the structure of the paper is quite obvious it should include a theory and methodology section. As mobile Internet plays a key role in the research the term should be clearly described in terms of whether certain types of devices, applications, processes, potentially IoT, and else meant to be used. In figure 1 mobile internet as well as mobile internet applications are referenced.
Please also describe how the Null Hypothesis has been developed as it needs to be further elaborated.
The authors draw on several theories, such as prospect, utility, information economics, search, and farmer behavior theory. While I appreciate that the authors intent is to develop a paper in the technology adoption context non of the theories have been further explained and the relationship of those forming a basis for the research described in the article. Potentially, technology adoption theories such as DoT, TPB, TAM, UTAUT could be used the frame the theoretical part.
I suggest a thorough English proof-reading.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Impact of Mobile Internet Application on Farmers Adoption and Development of Green Technology
This paper by combining theory with empirical questionnaires is worthy of publication but I am afraid there needs to be some additions.
First, European agriculture literature has since the work of Hagerstrand in the 1950s used his Innovation Theory (namely that a progressive farmer adopts an innovation, others follow slowly then quickly but then there are laggards who do not want or cannot innovate.
Governments took up this theory using Radio Soap Operas, on farm visits by advisers, publications and demonstration (research) farms.
The internet now provides a new way of diffusing research but the basic theory of Hagerstrand still holds in that farmers will follow their peers.
So, the paper needs maybe two paragraphs (it is quite short so there is space) on how innovation diffusion theory might be a big factor in the rather unique situation in China with its very different political economy.
Second, the paper nits at cognition but much research shows that recipients of information often switch off after a bit in the so-called cognitive continuum when the recipient thinks they have read enough to accept, reject or modify the information being received.
This continuum might explain a bit more the bell-shaped histograms along with innovation diffusion theory.
Third, I don’t see why mobile internet should be different from land line internet. Unless landline internet is not widely available in rural China? Or is mobile internet less liable to state intervention?
Fourth, there is little in the paper about the sources used by farmers. Are they state advice papers, research publications or weekly agricultural magazines. Do farmers perceive state publications as more reliable than other sources.
Fifth and maybe most crucial in the context of strict control of the internet by the Chinese Communist party and similar controls on what farmers can and cannot do to what extent are Chinese farmers economic men (and women?), satisfiers (happy to get by), constrained by family relationships etc. In other words, are Chinese farmers free agents as they might be considered to be in the USA and Europe albeit constrained by regulations but encouraged by subsidies and tariff barriers to produce more food etc. Also, a paragraph on the type of farmers questionnaire: owner-occupiers/tenants; family farmers; age and education etc.
Sixth, I cannot comment on the Algebra as I finished Mathematics at the age of 17. But maybe the Figures and Tables could be accompanied by text for the non-statisticians.
In conclusion a good paper on a very important topic how to reduce farm-based pollution and move to a more sustainable agriculture but could be much improved by the changes proposed above.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
This article by Huang et al. entitled “Impact of Mobile Internet Application on Farmers' Adoption and Development of Green Technology”. I have gone through the manuscript and it is an interesting work. Recently, information and communication technology plays significant role in agricultural sector. The work is good but the authors failed to write abstract, materials and methods and conclusion precisely. Overall, the study is well organized but lacks of discussion section. The manuscript has some typo-graphical errors and also need language correction.
Abstract:
The authors should add a few lines in this section emphasizing in the method. They also should mention the experimental location and sampling size.
Introduction
The authors should include this research related references and literature to represent the importance and research gap more precisely.
The authors did not mention the reasons of using the wheat variety conducting this research.
Materials and methods
This section lacks of detail information regarding the experimental design and the authors should add the map of the study area.
Results and discussion
The results are enough but I don’t find any discussion based on the results in this section.
Conclusion
Conclusion should be precise and informative based on the objectives. The author mentioned only the results in this section.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
I have gone through this manuscript by Huang et al. entitled “Impact of Mobile Internet Application on Farmers' Adoption and Development of Green Technology”. Now the authors have improved significantly this manuscript and this is much better than the previous one. I appreciate all of the authors of this research work for their hard labor. Overall, the research is completed.
Best of luck.
