Smart Agriculture in Southeast Asia: Digitization of Smallholders through Organizational Commitment and Collective Ambition

Abstract

Smart agriculture aims to improve agricultural sustainability output and earnings, increase resilience to climate change, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and promote Sustainable Development Goal 2. Understanding the internal organizational factors influencing digital transformation and digital maturity among farmers is crucial to achieving smart agriculture. This study collected a sample of 287 farmers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia across 15 agricultural zones. The study examines collective ambition through the lens of the theory of acceptance model (TAM) and organizational commitment through the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that collective ambition and organizational commitment have a significant and positive impact on digital transformation and digital maturity. The integration of TAM and UTAUT validates collective views of technology usability, social influence, and effort expectations as essential social mechanisms for coordinated action, sustained engagement, and enduring digital transitions.