Online group buying (OGB) in agricultural food businesses: An exploratory study

Abstract

Although agricultural produces occupy a reasonable portion of OGB businesses, glaringly, a limited research has been reported investigating the issues related to OGB businesses for agricultural commodity. To understand the enablers and inhibitors of OGB adoption in agricultural businesses, we conducted an exploratory research in a developing country i.e., Bangladesh which is unique in many contexts. Based on the data obtained from two focus group discussions and two interviews, we reported a unique OGB business model, particularly form the context of a developing country. This model also explains how OGB can operate in this specific industry. Moreover, we developed a framework to explain adoption of OGB in agricultural businesses. To the best of our knowledge, this is a unique effort employed to explain OGB dynamics from the perspective of supply-side stakeholders, and specifically in agricultural food sector. We briefly reported some practical implications of this study and offered future research directions.