Perceived Environmental Benefits and Beneficiary Acceptance in Malaysian Agribusiness Social Innovation Projects
Abstract
This study examines how beneficiaries' perceived productivity, economic, employment, and environmental benefits relate to acceptance of four agribusiness social innovation projects in Malaysia's MyIS Community 2021–2022 program. Each project initially targeted 100 beneficiaries, for a combined target of 400; 142 continuing participants completed the questionnaire (35.5% of the initial target). The primary regression used 139 complete composite cases and accounted for 48.8% of the observed variance in acceptance; environmental benefits had the only statistically significant conditional association (B = .563, HC3 SE = .081, ? = .626, p < .001). The researcher-developed measures showed extensive cross-loadings and insufficient separation of economic benefits from employment opportunities (HTMT = .964). In an exploratory rescoring sensitivity analysis that combined the livelihood items and removed several weak or evaluatively overlapping items, the environmental association persisted (B = .515, HC3 SE = .094; n = 140). The revised scores were derived and assessed using the same respondents and therefore require validation in an independent sample. Concurrent self-reports and uneven representation across projects limit interpretation; the data cannot establish whether perceived environmental benefits preceded acceptance or acceptance shaped those perceptions. The findings describe associations among continuing respondents' perceptions, not effects on poverty, food security, or environmental outcomes.
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