Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Pages: 164-179

Journal: Journal of Rural Studies

Volume number: 92

ISSN: 0743-0167

eISSN: 1873-1392

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.03.012

Publisher: Elsevier

Abstract: 
Farmers are often reluctant to adopt sustainable agricultural practices despite a thorough formal regulatory framework combating unsustainable behaviour. To date, the literature in this area has largely focused on the behavioural aspects of decision-making, with an emphasis on monetary compensation. This paper is an exploratory attempt to develop a new theory for farmers' adoption decisions of sustainable agricultural practices that takes into account both its enablers and its barriers. With an exploratory position, the case of Germany is used as a seminal context for building this new theory that we refer to as the Rules-Boundaries-Behaviours (RBB) framework. The basis for the development of the theory is a systematic literature review taking into account 48 peer-reviewed articles published between 1995 and 2021. The RBB framework illustrates that farmers' behav-ioural factors are restricted by boundary conditions (limitations in the personal, farm, farm operation, and environmental spheres), and that these behavioural and boundary conditions are contextually embedded in a complex in/formal rule space. A guideline for the use of the RBB framework in future studies is proposed and an extension of the methodological toolbox with engaged fieldwork is suggested.

Harvard Citation style: Campos, B. (2022) The Rules-Boundaries-Behaviours (RBB) framework for farmers' adoption decisions of sustainable agricultural practices, Journal of Rural Studies, 92, pp. 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.03.012

APA Citation style: Campos, B. (2022). The Rules-Boundaries-Behaviours (RBB) framework for farmers' adoption decisions of sustainable agricultural practices. Journal of Rural Studies. 92, 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.03.012