This research analyzed the demographic profile of respondents, as presented in Table 5.1. The profile comprised their age, gender, marital status, education level, household income, internet usage per day, how long they have used e-commerce, platforms of e-commerce adopted for rice selling, devices for e-commerce adoption, and frequency of e-commerce adoption for rice selling.
Table 5.1: Demographic profile of respondents
Variable Levels Frequency Percent
Age 20-30 years 27 6.77
31-40 years 106 26.2
41-50 years 157 38.8
51-60 years 82 20.2
Over 60 years 33 8.1
Gender Male 191 47.2
Female 214 52.8
Marital status Married 289 28.6
Single 116 71.4
Education Under secondary school 45 11.1
High school 73 18.0
Vocational Certificate/Diploma 117 28.9
Bachelor’s degree 147 36.3
Master’s degree 23 5.7
Household income Below 5,000 baht 9 2.2
5,000 – 9,999 baht 44 10.9
10,000 – 14,999 baht 83 20.5
15,000 – 19,999 baht 107 26.4
20,000 baht or above 162 40.0
Variable Levels Frequency Percent
Internet usage per day Less than 2 hours 115 28.4
2 – 5 hours 192 47.4
6 – 10 hours 86 21.2
More than 10 hours 12 3.0
How long have they used e-commerce
Less than 6 months 111 27.4
Between 6 months and 2 years 170 42.0
More than 2 years 124 30.6
Platforms of
e-commerce adopted for rice selling
Facebook (only) 34 8.4
LINE (only) 66 16.3
Websites such as government, private or own website
6 1.5
Facebook and LINE 173 42.7
Facebook, LINE and Instagram 38 9.4 Facebook, LINE and websites 76 18.8 Facebook, LINE , Instagram and
websites
12 3.0
Devices for
e-commerce adoption
Desktop PC/laptop/notebook 11 2.7
smartphone 178 44.0
Tablet 2 0.5
PC and smartphone 159 39.3
Smartphone and Tablet 34 8.4
PC, Smartphone and Tablet 21 5.2
Frequency of
e-commerce adoption for rice selling
Rarely 36 8.9
Sometimes 182 44.9
Often 138 34.1
Always 49 10
5.1.1 Gender and marital status
In terms of gender, more males (214 respondents, 52.8 percent) than females (191 respondents, 47.2 percent) responded. Most respondents were married (289
respondents, 71.4 percent) while the remaining 116 respondents (28.6 percent) were single.
5.1.2 Age
Most respondents were in the 41–50 years age group (157 respondents, 38.8 percent); followed by the 31–40 years age group (106 respondents, 26.2 percent); then the 51–60 years age group (82 respondents, 20.2 percent); followed by the over 60 years age group (33 respondents, 8.1 percent); and the 20–30 years age group (27 respondents, 6.7 percent); with no respondents in the less than 20 years age group.
5.1.3 Education level
The education level of respondents in the sample was divided into five groups:
Master’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, vocational certificate/diploma, high school, and under secondary school level. The largest group of respondents comprised those who held a Bachelor degree (147 respondents, 36.3 percent); followed by respondents in the group of vocational certificate or diploma holders (117 respondents, 28.9 percent), then respondents in the group with a high school education level (73 respondents, 18 percent); then those whose education was under secondary school level (45 respondents, 11 percent); and Master’s degree holders (23 respondents, 5.7 percent);
with no respondents in the research having an education level higher than a Master’s degree.
5.1.4 Household income per month
The household income per month of respondents was categorized into five groups. The first group comprised respondents with a monthly household income of 20,000 baht or above, with 162 respondents (40 percent) in this group. The second group, with a monthly household income from 15,000–19,999 baht, comprised 107 respondents (26.4 percent). The third group, with a monthly household income from 10,000–14,999 baht, comprised 83 respondents (20.5 percent). The fourth group, with a monthly household income from 5,000–9,999 baht, comprised 44 respondents (10.9
percent). The fifth group, with a monthly household income below 5,000 baht comprised nine (9) respondents (2.2 percent).
5.1.5 Average internet usage and e-commerce usage
In terms of average internet usage per day, the largest group of respondents used the internet on average for approximately 2–5 hours per day, with this group comprising 192 respondents (47.4 percent); followed by the next largest group of 115 respondents (28.4 percent) who used the internet on average for less than two (2) hours per day; then the group of 86 respondents (21.2 percent) who used the internet on average for approximately 6–10 hours per day; and, finally, 12 respondents (3 percent) who used the internet on average for more than 10 hours per day.
Respondents were then asked about the length of time that they had used e-commerce to buy or sell any products. The findings showed that 170 respondents (42 percent) had used e-commerce from around six (6) months to two (2) years; while 124 respondents (36 percent) had used e-commerce for more than two (2) years; with the rest (111 respondents, 27.4 percent) having used e-commerce for less than six (6) months.
In terms of the frequency of e-commerce usage for rice selling, the largest group with 182 respondents (44.9 percent) ‘sometimes’ used e-commerce for rice selling;
while 138 respondents (34.1 percent) ‘often’ used e-commerce for rice selling;
49 respondents (10 percent) ‘always’ used e-commerce for rice selling; and 36 respondents (8.9 percent) ‘rarely’ used e-commerce for rice selling.
5.1.6 Devices for e-commerce adoption
Regarding devices for e-commerce adoption for rice selling, respondents were divided into six groups, depending on the variety of devices they used for e-commerce adoption. The largest group of respondents (178 respondents, 44 percent) used only a smartphone; followed by 159 respondents (39 percent) who used both a desktop personal computer (PC) and a smartphone; then 34 respondents (8.4 percent) who used both a smartphone and a tablet; 21 respondents (5.2 percent) who used three devices (i.e., desktop PC, smartphone, and tablet), with the remaining 13 respondents divided
into two groups, one of 11 respondents (2.7 percent) and the other of 2 respondents (0.5 percent), who used only a desktop PC or only a tablet, respectively.
5.1.7 Platforms of e-commerce adopted for rice selling
In terms of e-commerce platforms adopted for rice selling, respondents had mostly used the following channels: Facebook, the LINE application, Instagram, and websites (government, private, or their own website, such as Shopee, Lazada, etc.).
Respondents were categorized into seven groups based on the e-commerce channel/s each respondent had used for selling rice online. The first group comprised rice farmers who had used Facebook and the LINE application (173 respondents, 42 percent).
The second group of 76 rice farmers (18.8 percent) were the respondents who had used Facebook, the LINE application, and websites for selling rice online. The third group of 66 rice farmers (16.3 percent) were the respondents who had used only Facebook for selling rice online. The fourth group of 38 rice farmers (9.4 percent) were the respondents who had used Facebook, the LINE application, and Instagram for selling rice online. The fifth to seventh groups, comprising 34 rice farmers (8.4 percent); 12 rice farmers (3 percent); and six (6) rice farmers (1.5 percent) were the respondents who had used only Facebook; four platforms (Facebook, the LINE application, Instagram, and website); and only website, respectively.
5.2 Sampling adequacy: KMO Index, Bartlett’s test, and anti-image