The Particularities of Sustainable Development of Agricultural Organizations

Starting from the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and inserting particularities of sustainable development, our research aims to analyze managers of agricultural organizations’ acceptance behavior of digitalizing their activities. Using a quantitative research approach and a sample of 326 managers of agricultural organizations, we demonstrate that knowledge about digitalization (KD) and intention to implement digital tools (ID) mediates the relationship between environmental concerns (EC) and managers’ digital behavior (DB). This study contributes to the development of specialized literature in the field of digitalization of agricultural processes because our PLS-SEM theoretical model contains the mediating variables (i.e., first, knowledge about digitalization mediates the relationship between environmental concern and intention to implement digital tools; second, intention to implement digital tools mediates the relationship between knowledge about digitalization and managers digital behavior). The practical implications of our study consist of the perspectives offered to the managers of agricultural organizations to evaluate, on the one hand, the importance of knowing the competitive advantages offered by digital tools and, on the other hand, to be aware that digital tools contribute to the promotion of sustainable development and the implementation of concrete actions regarding their environmental concern. Finally, the originality of our research consists of identifying environmental concerns as a triggering factor of managers’ desire to acquire more knowledge about how to implement digital tools in their activity so that their digitization behavior is effective.