Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia

The highly volatile auction system in Australia accounts for 85 percent of ex-farm wool sales, with the remainder sold by forward contract, futures, and other hedging methods. In this article, against the background of an extensive literature on price risk strategies, we investigate title behavioral...

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Main Authors: Jackson, E., Quaddus, Mohammed, Islam, N., Stanton, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Royal Sociology Society 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37192
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author Jackson, E.
Quaddus, Mohammed
Islam, N.
Stanton, J.
author_facet Jackson, E.
Quaddus, Mohammed
Islam, N.
Stanton, J.
author_sort Jackson, E.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The highly volatile auction system in Australia accounts for 85 percent of ex-farm wool sales, with the remainder sold by forward contract, futures, and other hedging methods. In this article, against the background of an extensive literature on price risk strategies, we investigate title behavioral factors associated with producers' adoption of price risk-management strategies (specifically futures and forward contracts) for selling wool. This research presents a behavioral model based on Diffusion of Innovations, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and the Theory of Planned Behavior. We found that the auction system is used as a price risk-management tool because other selling methods are considered more risky. We also report on a curious relationship between risk and complexity in terms of wool producers' intentions to use forward contracts. We explored sociological factors in conjunction with focus-group data in an attempt to understand this relationship. This exercise yielded some interesting findings on the impact that trust, habit, social cohesion, and networks have on decision making in the rural community. The significance of this article lies in its application of core sociological theory in a new research context: the Australian wool industry.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-371922017-09-13T13:38:55Z Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia Jackson, E. Quaddus, Mohammed Islam, N. Stanton, J. The highly volatile auction system in Australia accounts for 85 percent of ex-farm wool sales, with the remainder sold by forward contract, futures, and other hedging methods. In this article, against the background of an extensive literature on price risk strategies, we investigate title behavioral factors associated with producers' adoption of price risk-management strategies (specifically futures and forward contracts) for selling wool. This research presents a behavioral model based on Diffusion of Innovations, the Theory of Reasoned Action, and the Theory of Planned Behavior. We found that the auction system is used as a price risk-management tool because other selling methods are considered more risky. We also report on a curious relationship between risk and complexity in terms of wool producers' intentions to use forward contracts. We explored sociological factors in conjunction with focus-group data in an attempt to understand this relationship. This exercise yielded some interesting findings on the impact that trust, habit, social cohesion, and networks have on decision making in the rural community. The significance of this article lies in its application of core sociological theory in a new research context: the Australian wool industry. 2009 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37192 10.1111/j.1549-0831.2009.tb00704.x Royal Sociology Society restricted
spellingShingle Jackson, E.
Quaddus, Mohammed
Islam, N.
Stanton, J.
Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title_full Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title_fullStr Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title_short Sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in Australia
title_sort sociological factors affecting agricultural price risk management in australia
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/37192