Farmers' Acceptance of the Organic Certification System in Germany: A Partial Least Squares Model

The institutional framework of the certification scheme is a crucial factor in the future success of the organic market. Increasing complexity and a couple of scandals indicate that current control structures might be insufficient. A better understanding of farmers' attitudes is necessary to increase acceptance and to guarantee the longer term success of the organic certification system. By means of a conceptual framework based on the technology acceptance model, an investigation was conducted into acceptance of the organic certification system in Germany. The empirical basis of the study was a survey conducted among organic farmers in Germany. Partial least squares was used as a multivariate analysis technique to estimate the parameters of the proposed causal model. The findings indicate that the majority of farmers accept the present organic certification system but are not convinced of its cost-benefit relationship.