Cultural Attributes: A Key Antecedent of Resilience among Agricultural Innovation Platforms in Central and South Western Uganda

Abstract

The increasing quest for project success has accelerated demand for collaboration among project network actors to guarantee their resilience. However, since most project networks are temporally endeavours, there is need for creating and maintaining effective interactions that guarantee success of future projects. Sustaining interactions on these networks is a complex governance question due to the unique nature and interests of actors. Among these challenges is the diverse cultural orientations of various actors. This study sought to investigate the effect of cultural attributes on resilience of project networks among agricultural innovation platforms in Central and South western Uganda. The study was anchored on the systems theory and positivism research philosophy adopting explanatory research design. The target population comprised of 220 AIP actors drawn from farmer representatives, traders/processor, researchers, government agents, extension agents, and NGOs in central and Southwestern Uganda. A sample of 132 respondents was drawn from this population using stratified sampling technique. Primary data was collected via semi-structured questionnaire. Collected data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential analysis. The fitness of the model was measured using F-statistic while the predictive power of the model was measured using R2. The significance of the variable coefficient was determined at 0.05 significance level. Results showed that largely, cultural attributes of norms, values, and power distance should be embraced. A positive correlation existed between resilience of project networks and cultural attributes, and cultural attributes significantly predicted resilience of project networks. The study recommends that AIP leaders should promote the practice of cultural attributes such as network norms, values, and power distance as key components of network governance. This study contributes towards designing a management approach that is able to accommodate and take full advantage of potentialities that come with dynamism and complexity like cultural attributes among project networks. Since the study was restricted to Central and South western Uganda, it is proposed that other studies be conducted in the whole country or indeed other countries to validate generalizability of results