Abstract

In the relatively closed social network and relatively stable transactional relationship environment，farmers usually repurchased a particular brand product of agricultural material or patronized a particular store of agricultural material frequently in a long term. We defined this phenomenon as Lock-in Purchasing Behavior Pattern. Because of the particularity of agricultural materials market and rural social environment，the lock-in effect has been the popular phenomenon in agricultural materials market. However，the existing customer behavior theory research mainly focus on customer satisfaction，customer loyalty behavior to explore the influence of active-buying internal factor on customer purchase intention and behavior，but it ignores the potential effects of external factors，such as customer’s specific market environment and community culture. It rarely analyses and researches this interesting and new phenomenon of customer’s passive purchasing behavior.

To this end，we tried to get rid of the emphasis on customer’s internalization factors like the most of research，based on the current agricultural materials procurement environment and rural social relations situation and some related articles such as purchasing behavior theory and farmer behavior theory. By some research method such as Document Analysis，Factor Analysis，Variance Analysis，Regression Analysis and Structural Equation Model，we definitely defined the concept of Lock-in Purchasing Behavior，explored the most mode of Lock-in Purchasing Behaviors from the point of farmers’ characteristics，analyzed the direct and situational factors of Lock-in Purchasing，built a formation mechanism model of Lock-in Purchasing Behaviors from the point of situational factors，lastly discuss the mechanism of farmers’ lock-in awareness of agricultural materials affect the online purchasing mode in the environment of e-commerce in the rural.

The research of farmers’ characteristics analysis of different Lock-in Purchasing Behavior Pattern of agricultural materials shows that：householder’s characteristics，family management features，purchasing characteristic had a different effect on Lock-in Purchasing Behaviors，Lock-in Brand Purchasing Behavior and Lock-in Store Purchasing Behavior exist simultaneously in agricultural materials market. Otherwise，the groups which tend to Lock-in Brand Purchasing Behaviors are the farmers who are males，older，higher education，higher family agricultural incomes，longer cultivating years，fewer cultivated area，the more importance of purchasing，buying the seed products；the groups which tend to Lock-in Store Purchasing Behavior are the farmers who are females，younger，lower education，higher family agricultural incomes，shorter cultivating years，more cultivated area，the more importance of purchasing，buying the pesticide products.

The research of driving factors of farmers’ lock-in purchasing behavior of agricultural materials shows that：firstly，of all this two lock-in purchasing behaviors’ factors，direct factors and situational factors had a significant effect on farmer’s lock-in purchasing behavior，but the synthetical effects of situational factors were significantly greater than the direct factors；secondly，of lock-in brand purchasing behavior’s factors，brand’s functional value had the most impact，closely followed by social norms，trade dependency and perceived differentiation of situational factors，the impact of brand perceived risk and perceived cost were weakest；thirdly，of lock-in store purchasing behavior’s factors，the quality of human relationship had the most impact，closely followed by trade dependency，social norms，perceived differentiation and other situational factors，the impact of retailer image，product image，reputation image，service image of direct factors were weakest and convenience image had no significant effect.

The research of formation mechanism of farmer’s Lock-in Purchasing Behavior of agricultural material products shows that：brand perceived value，retail perceived image had direct and indirect effects on farmer’s Lock-in Purchasing Behavior，both the indirect effects were generated by a positive impact by the mediate function of perceived differentiation and trade dependency；the quality of human relationship had the positive impact on Lock-in Store Purchasing Behavior；social norms both could positively regulates the relationships between brand perceived value and Lock-in Brand Purchasing Behavior and the relationships between retail perceived image and Lock-in Store Purchasing Behavior. In addition，there are significant differences of lock-in purchasing behaviors’ impact pathways and behavior mode among different regions. Farmers in Shandong province behaved as lower lock-in brand purchasing behavior and lower lock-in store purchasing behavior，the direct factors had a greater impact；farmers in Hubei province behaved as lower lock-in brand purchasing behavior and higher lock-in store purchasing behavior，the direct factors and situational factors both had a great impact；farmers in Sichuan province behaved as higher lock-in brand purchasing behavior and higher lock-in store purchasing behavior，the situational factors had a greater impact.

The research of the mechanism of farmers’ lock-in awareness of agricultural materials affect the online purchasing mode shows that：firstly，farmers’ lock-in awareness had an impact on the online purchasing mode by the mediate function of information processing model；secondly，the analytical processing mode generated by lock-in brand awareness had a positive effect on independent purchasing mode and the heuristic processing mode generated by lock-in store awareness had a positive effect on agent purchasing mode；thirdly，situational vulnerability positively regulated the relationships between analytical processing mode and independent purchasing mode and negatively regulated the relationships between heuristic processing mode and agent purchasing mode.

Based on the current agricultural materials procurement environment and rural social relations situation，we detailedly discussed and go deep into the driving factors，formation mechanism and influencing mechanism of Lock-in Purchasing Behavior. It has a big theory contribution：firstly，we defined the concept of Lock-in Purchasing Behavior from the point of situational factors and divided it into Lock-in Brand Purchasing Behavior and Lock-in Store Purchasing Behavior according to the different locked objects，it is an useful attempt to deepen purchasing behavior theory；secondly，we built a formation mechanism model of Lock-in Purchasing Behaviors from the point of situational factors，opening the “black box” of the cause of farmers’ passively buying the agricultural materials；thirdly，we built the mechanism of farmers’ lock-in awareness of agricultural materials affect the online purchasing mode from the point of information processing model，rebuilding the explanation facility of farmers’ online purchasing mode of agricultural materials. It has a big practical value：it provide a lot of useful advice for agricultural materials company to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty and raising the core competitive ability，such as implementing differentiation marketing strategy based on customer and behavioral characteristics，implementing brand and store management，rationally utilizing the role of situational factors on farmers’ purchasing behavior of agricultural materials. It have an important exploring meaning to guide the government to effectively manage the agricultural materials market and improve the objective conditions of farmers’ purchasing behavior of agricultural materials and promote the healthy development of agricultural materials industry.

Keywords：Farmers’ Lock-in Purchasing Behavior；Trade Dependency；Perceived Differentiation；Social Norms；Agricultural Materials Marketing