The impact of networks on the innovative and financial performance of more entrepreneurial versus less entrepreneurial farmers in West Java, Indonesia

Farmers may vary in their response to or anticipation of agrifood market changes, which probably depends on their entrepreneurial degree and networks. This paper aims to investigate the effects of farmers’ entrepreneurial degree and network content (i.e., business ties, technology ties, and network heterogeneity) on farm performance (i.e., innovative performance and financial performance). The data set was gathered through a survey of 262 vegetable farmers in West Java, Indonesia. Our findings reveal that more entrepreneurial farmers (106) have more business ties, technology ties, and heterogeneous networks compared to less entrepreneurial farmers (156). Further analyses using OLS regression confirm that farmers who are more entrepreneurial and have more business ties obtain both enhanced innovative and financial performance, while farmers who link to heterogeneous networks obtain only enhanced innovative performance. Overall, the findings of this study demonstrate that more entrepreneurial farmers with networks that are rich in business ties and diverse contacts have better farm performance.