Detecting buyer's role effects to achieve collaborative business relationships in the agriculture business, using electroencephalogram (EEG)

Abstract

The relationships between suppliers and buyers in agricultural sector are crucial to the acquisition of resources for achieving competitive advantage. This paper examines several agricultural buyer and supplier relationships by testing the effects of different types of agriculture buyers on farmer's perceived value, trust, performance, and commitment using neuroscience method. This provided objective information about farmers' sensory, cognitive and emotional reactions based on cortical brain activity (electroencephalogram) in different brain regions. The pattern of brain activity was obtained in the Alpha (8-12 Hz) and Beta (13-30 Hz) frequency bands of the frontal (AF3 and AF4), parietal (Pz), and temporal (T7 and T8) brain areas. There are differences in farmers' emotional responses towards each buyer type. Most farmers demonstrated the highest interest response in relation to perceived value, and demonstrated an engagement response indicating trust towards the farmers' group, while the highest excitement response arose in relation to tengkulak performance.