Studying and comparing the factors and the methodologies for the adoption of ecological farming technologies

This thesis is a literature review and the research question that tries to answer is: How can the adoption of ecological agricultural technologies be studied? The contribution of this thesis is to provide information regarding the adoption factors and the methodologies used to study the adoption of ecological farming technologies.

In chapter 1 we present the most cited articles in three databases (Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science) regarding the factors farmers take into account in order to adopt ecological farming technologies. Our goal is to provide information about the most common factors which are taken into account for the adoption of ecological methods of farming.

In chapter 2 we present the theoretical models used for the adoption of farming technologies by psychologists. We also present the research methods used more extensively by economists (the Expected Utility Theory and Discrete Choice Experiments).

In Chapter 3 we introduce Discrete Choice Experiments. We present the strong and weak points as well as the advancements of DCE. In addition, we present Hybrid Choice Models, which are extension of Discrete Choice Models and can incorporate unobservable factors.This thesis concludes with chapter 4, which signifies the adoption of ecological farming and the usefulness of Discrete Choice Experiments and Hybrid Choice Models methods.