Does Digital Competence Amplify the Resilience Benefits of Digital Access? Evidence from Agripreneurs in Southwest Nigeria
Main Article Content
Abstract
Digitalisation can reduce information asymmetries in agricultural markets, but access to digital tools and the capability to use them effectively are not necessarily equivalent. This study examines whether digital access and digital competence are independently associated with agripreneurial resilience and whether competence strengthens the access-resilience association. Survey data from 246 agripreneurs in six communities across Ogun, Ondo, and Osun States, Southwest Nigeria, were analysed within an Information Asymmetry Theory framework that treats access and competence as complementary dimensions of digital capital. In the principal robust regression, digital access (β = 0.412, p < 0.001) and digital competence (β = 0.284, p < 0.001) were each positively associated with resilience; the numerically larger access coefficient lacks a formal equality-of-coefficients test and is not treated as distinct. The access-by-competence interaction was small and non-significant (β = 0.018, p = 0.742), a pattern replicated across bootstrap OLS, quantile regression, beta regression, factor-score weighting, wild-cluster bootstrap, and mixed-effects specifications. This null result is imprecise: only 18 respondents (7.3%) occupy the high-access/low-competence quadrant, and post-hoc power was 0.12. The findings therefore support additive associations of access and competence more than a complementary interaction, without ruling out moderation in other samples. The study offers a cautious account of digital capital: infrastructure and capability may each matter for resilience, but the cross-sectional evidence here cannot establish that competence amplifies the return to access. Policy attention should therefore target connectivity, reliable power, digital competence, and entrepreneurial capacity, while causal claims await longitudinal or quasi-experimental evidence.
Article Details
Copyright (c) 2026 Edamisan Stephen Ikuemonisan (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abdulai, A. R., Tetteh Quarshie, P., Duncan, E., & Fraser, E. (2023). Is agricultural digitization a reality among smallholder farmers in Africa? Unpacking farmers' lived realities of engagement with digital tools and services in rural Northern Ghana. Agriculture & Food Security, 12(1), 11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-023-00416-6
Agholor, I. A., Chowdhury, A., & Yusuf, S. F. G. (2024). Agri-preneurial resilience and success: The correlation and demographic characteristics of smallholders in South Africa. Administrative Sciences, 14(10), 256. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14100256 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14100256
Akerlof, G. A. (1970). The market for lemons: Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 84(3), 488–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/1879431 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1879431
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood.
Bourdieu, P. (2011). The forms of capital. In I. Szeman & T. Kaposy (Eds.), Cultural theory: An anthology (pp. 81–93). Wiley-Blackwell.
Chen, Z., & Ma, X. (2026). Digital economy, agricultural technological innovation, and agricultural economic resilience: A sustainable agricultural development perspective. Sustainability, 18(8), 3973. https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083973 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083973
Choruma, D. J., Dirwai, T. L., Mutenje, M. J., Mustafa, M., Chimonyo, V. G. P., Jacobs-Mata, I., & Mabhaudhi, T. (2024). Digitalisation in agriculture: A scoping review of technologies in practice, challenges, and opportunities for smallholder farmers in sub-saharan africa. Journal of agriculture and food research, 18, 101286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2024.101286 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2024.101286
Huber, P. J. (1967). The behavior of maximum likelihood estimates under nonstandard conditions. Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Symposium on Mathematical Statistics and Probability, 1, 221–233.
Nwangwu, K. N., Onyenekwe, C. S., Opata, P. I., Ume, C. O., & Ume, N. N. C. (2024). Can digital technology promote market participation among smallholder farmers?. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, 27(4), 706-728. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22434/ifamr2023.0065
Ogutu, S., Okello, J., & Otieno, D. (2013). Impact of ICT-based market information services on smallholder farm input use and productivity: The case of Kenya. World Development, 64, 311–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.06.012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.06.011
Okadi, A. O., Nwakile, T. C., Ugwuoke, C. U., Ali, C. C., Ikehi, M., Innocent-Ene, E. O., ... & Tetok, N. I. (2026). Digital financial services, gender and climate-resilience pathways for sustainable agriculture in Nigeria. Discover Sustainability, 7(1), 448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-03071-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-03071-6
Ragnedda, M. (2018). Conceptualizing digital capital. Telematics and Informatics, 35(8), 2366–2375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.10.006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.10.006
Ragnedda, M., Addeo, F., & Ruiu, M. L. (2025). A shorter scale for measuring digital capital: Cross-national validation of the Digital Capital Scale. World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 3, 31–54. https://doi.org/10.30547/worldofmedia.3.2025.2
Roberts, E., & Townsend, L. (2016). The contribution of the creative economy to the resilience of rural communities: Exploring cultural and digital capital. Sociologia Ruralis, 56(2), 197–219. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12075 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12075
Saruchera, F., & Mpunzi, S. (2023). Digital capital and food agricultural SMEs: Examining the effects on SME performance, inequalities and government role. Cogent Business & Management, 10(1), 2191304. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2191304 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2023.2191304
Stiglitz, J. E. (2000). The contributions of the economics of information to twentieth century economics. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(4), 1441–1478. https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300555015 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/003355300555015
Van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2020). The digital divide. Polity Press.
Zhao, J., Lin, J., Wang, S., Yang, F., Dai, Y., & Chen, L. (2024). Exploring rural resident's digital capital against external shocks in digital transformation. Discover Computing, 27, 52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10791-024-09494-x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10791-024-09494-x
Article Sidebar
