42 SAJEMS NS Vol I (1998) No 1 The Role of Openly Communicated Motives During the Rationalization Process of Irrigation System Buying Behaviour C A BisschotT Graduate School of Management, Potchefstroom University for CHE ABSTRACT The article deals with the identification of the openly stated motives which farmers give to rationalize their buying behaviour in the mechanized irrigation industry. These motives are, in declining order of importance. "Dealership orientation". "Terrain suitability", "Maintenance". "Management", "Mechanical performance", "Design", "Delivery schedule", "Finance", "Infrastructure". "Technical specifications" and "Professional influences". Openly communicated motives are important to agricultural economists, financial and other advisory institutions since they can render better quality services to farmers if they know what are the reasons overtly given to rationalize other unspoken motives. The farmers can benefit from the results since they would be able to examine their own line of thought, and thus identify the motives of real importance applicable to their situation. Marketers of irrigation systems can also benefit since their selling approach would be more motive-directed. INTRODUCTION The article addresses the openly communicated motives which consumers employ in their buying behaviour with regard to a mechanized irrigation system. Bisschoff & Marais (1991) identified the underlying motives (or unspoken motives) which playa role in the consumer's buying behaviour. Both these sets of motives are important since the consumer employs the openly communicated motives to rationalize the unspoken motives (Ciba-Geigy, 1991). A practical explanation of R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 00 9) . SATEB NR Vol 1 (1998) Nr 1 43 such a state of affairs could be that a person may claim that he bought an expensive German vehicle due its vast "safety features" and "durability" (communicated motives). while the motives which are not communicated openly may be those of "status" and "prestige". The significance of this state of affairs resides in the fact that the consumer does not regularly communicate his real motives to the other people involved, and looks for other "arguments" (or motives) to rationalize his purchase of the German vehicle. These motives are also used by the buyer to rationalize the purchase decision to himself, and playa significant role in the final purchasing decision. It is also important to note that if a strong underlying motive exists while the rationalization motives are absent, the buyer will seldom enter into the final stage of buying behaviour, namely the actual purchase of the product (Ciba-Geigy, 1991). The astute marketer would therefore attempt to identify the underlying motives at first, and then address the rationalization motives to obtain the actual sale. This article addresses the rationalization motives which pertain to the mechanized irrigation industry. The new irrigation area in the Upper Fish River Valley served as the geographical area for the empirical research. The farmers were new to irrigation farming. Water rights were allocated there from the Orange-Fish River Tunnel during the course of 1987/88 (Bisschoff, 1989: 2). Advanced mechanized irrigation systems consist mainly of centre pivot and linear systems. Both systems are technically highly advanced and apart from their main function of watering crops, they have a vast number of features and safety devices. The dualistic influence of motives in buying behaviour calls for a study of consumer motives, and since the underlying motives have already been discussed. the logical question remains the determination of the openly communicated motives which are employed to rationalize buying behaviour. Readers can examine the theoretical base which applies to the empirical results by reading the mentioned article by Bisschoff & Marais (1991). PROBLEM DEFlNITION The major concern dealt with in the article pertains to the rationalization effect which motives have on buying behaviour. The frrst problem refers to the identification of the underlying motives of the farmer in the mechanized irrigation industry, while the second problem deals with the rationalization role these openly communicated motives play in buying behaviour. Since the frrst problem was R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 00 9) . 44 SAJEMS NS Vol I (1998) No I already addressed by Bisschoff & Marais (1991), this article logically deals onJy with the rationalization motives of the fanners. METHODOWGY The sampling frame consisted of fanners in the Upper Fish River Valley. Simple random sampling was employed to select the respondents for the research, and 48 farmers agreed to participate. A pilot srudy was conducted with 15 selected farmers to detennine the initial set of motives they had employed when they purchased their mechanized irrigation systems (Bisschoff, 1988). The motives identified by the focus group were listed and used to compile a strucrured questiormaire which was used in the srudy. In the strucrured questionnaire the respondents had to record their responses on a seven point Likert-scale to indicate the importance of each motive in their purchasing decision. These motives were presented in statement fonnat in the questionnaire. Personal interviews were conducted with the farmers to ensure that infonnation required in the questionnaire was recorded accurately. A total of 46 questionnaires were usable. The sample amount is in excess of 80% of the mechanized irrigation fanners in the geographical area. The list of openJy communicated motives were identified from the completed questionnaires by means of principle factor analysis, employing the rotational method "varirnax", A cut-off communal value of 1 was used as filter to eradicate less significant statements from the interpretation of the data (Cornrey, 1973: 223). However. since factor analysis is especially designed to identify underlying (or in this case "unspoken" motives). the factor loadings are not used as a classification tool (Bisschoff. 1992: 165). The communal values of each statement was calculated and employed to categorize each motive. The communal values were calculated by the squared sum of the individual factor loadings per statement (Bisschoff, 1992: 163). The variance explained by each statement is portrayed by dividing the communality by the nwnber of statements (Wherry. 1984: 290; Yates. 1987: 295-305), This value is shown in a percentage fonnat. In addition the variance of each specific motive was calculated. In essence, the communal value, which represents the variance explained by each specifIC statement, was employed to detennine each motive's relative importance. R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 00 9) . SA TEB NR Vol 1 (1998) Nr 1 45 EMPIRICAL RESULTS The communality values of the statements were used to detennine the importanCe of each statement. Since this study returned relatively high communalities as a result of the high factor loadings, most of the forty-eight statements explained a variance between 1.7% and 2.5%, and very few were eliminated by the initiated cut-off filter. The following 11 openly communicated motives were identified and labelled. These motives and their variance explained are shown in Table 1. Short discussions of each identified motive explains the labelling of these motives. The importanCe of the motives is portrayed by the variance explained in each case and they are discussed in descending order of importance. Table 1: Openly Communicated Motives Motive Variance Cumulative Explained Variance Explained Dealership Orientation 11.91 % 11.91 % Terrain Suitability 11.90% 23.81% Maintenance 10.21 % 34.02% Management 10.15% 44.17% Mechanical Performance 8.31 % 52.48% Design 8.18% 60.66% Delivery Schedule 8.14% 68.80% Finarx::e 8.07% 76.87% Infrastrucrure 7.89% 84.76% Technical Specifications 6.19% 90.95% Professional Influences 6.14% 97.09% R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 00 9) . 46 SAJEMS NS Vol I (1998) No I Dealersbip orientation "Dealership orientation" relates to the statements regarding the consumer's relationship with the dealer, as well as the dealer's reputation which implies future expectations from the dealer (for instance: will the dealer still be in business to provide after-sales service?). The motive identified as "Dealership orientation" indicates that the farmers use this motive as rationalization of their choice of irrigation system since the different dealers stock differently designed irrigation systems. The farmer could also claim that he bought an irrigation system from a specific dealer because the dealer would still be in available as a future business contact. Terrain suitability As expected, farmers regard the suitability of the terrain as extremely important. The soil as medium for vegetated growth should be of a high quality if the farmer plans to irrigate it. Consumers of advanced irrigation systems, therefore, regard the continual high quality of the soil as an imJX)rtant issue before erecting such an irrigation system. The motive explains a high variance of 11.90%. Maintenance "Maintenance" explains 10.21 % of the total variance explained, and relates to speedy repairs, availability of spares, quality of workmanship, as well as the cost of the repair package. In essence, "Maintenance" relates to the after-sales service provided by the dealer. Surely. a successful selling approach should incorporate this motive as rationale since the fact that the farmers identified "Maintenance" as a motive indicates that they do not expect the irrigation system to supply lengthy. trouble-free service, but they rather expect the irrigation ~ystem to break down and wear out certain parts. R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 00 9) . SATEB NR Vol 1 (1998) Nr 1 47 Management The ease of managing advanced irrigation systems is valued by fanners as an important motive. This can be seen by the high variance of lO.51 % explained by the motive. Nearly all the statements regarding managerial aspects indicated that on an irrigation fann productivity is deemed to be of the utmost importance. The managerial motive specifically applies to the area since a large percentage of the respondents acquired irrigation systems to supplement their current farming activities, thus increasing the amount of work on the fann. Mechanical performance Issues regarding the macro-